Nutcracker

In 2004, they redid the Nutcracker in San Francisco and I do like some of the changes that they made to it. I went up to the city by myself to see the performance since William was out of town several weeks ago. Many of the other performances had started at 8 pm so I thought that was the start time and I ended up getting there early at like 7:10 to park and get my ticket (since the will call lines are normally so long) and it turns out that the show started at 7!! YIKES. But, it actually turned out for the best because I got a better seat down in the back of the loge at 7:20 instead of my bad seat up in the nose bleeds. I was able to see my two favorite pieces close up- the fight with the Nutcracker Prince and King of the Mice and the dance with King and Queen of the Snow and Snowflakes. This number was mesmerizing with light snow falling throughout the entire number. I was so impressed that no one slipped. The costumes and choreography for this number was so intricate and fit perfectly with the music. I was sad when intermission came and I had to go up to my nose bleed seats.

The rest of the show was good especially the French dancers were great in that they did ballet while twirling ribbons (really beautiful) and the Russian dancers lept through a paper scene covering these beautifully decorated Faberge type eggs (such a great entrance), but I did have some issues with a few of the performances in the second act. The Arabian dancers were hokey- they had a girl come out of Aladdin's lamp- which I felt was just way too cliche. I was very bothered by Madame Du Cirque as she literally looked like a circus tent with the red and white stripes and her dress curtains only slightly pulled back (and it definitely looked like she had room for all of the little kids). That has been one of my favorite parts was being amazed at how many kids could fit underneath that dress. I also was not a huge fan of the Waltzing Flowers and the Sugar Plum Fairy. Usually that dance is one of my favorites but this time, I felt that the dance did not live up to the great song and previous performances that I have seen. It is pretty much the group finale and so it should be spectacular but it was only ok.

Another problem that I had was the the corps ballet dancers were not always in sync which I was very surprised because it makes the performance quite distracting.

I'm sorry if I am so critical of the performance- I have just seen the Nutcracker so many times that I can't help scrutinizing it. But, overall, I thought that it was worth it to go to the production and I would go again at least just to see the nutcracker mice battle and especially the snow dance- it was completely magical!