Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet once again will stage their spectacular production of The Nutcracker, with story set on the fairgrounds of 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Performances run from December 1 to 30 at the Auditorium Theater.
This new ballet by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, which premiered in 2016, invites the audience to … “journey inside Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair with Wheeldon’s critically acclaimed holiday masterpiece. When young Marie and her mother, a sculptress who is creating the fair’s iconic Statue of the Republic, host a holiday party, a surprise visit from the charming Great Impresario sets off a Christmas Eve dream of whirlwind romance and adventure. A must-see tradition boldly re-imagined for a new generation.”
Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia, in December 1892, as workers on the Columbian Exposition grounds were constructing buildings and statues during the cold winter in Chicago. In Wheeldon’s re-imagining of the classic ballet, young Marie and her mother (Polish immigrants) host a holiday party in their home (a worker’s shack) on the fairgrounds, Drosselmeier is now “The Impressario” (Daniel Burnham) building the fair, and the part of the Sugar Plum Fairy is given to the golden Statue of the Republic. Instead of visiting the “Land of Sweets,” Marie tours the Midway Plaisance.
This may be the company’s final run of the Nutcracker in this historic Auditorium Theater, as the Joffrey Ballet will be moving to their new home at the Lyric Opera in 2019.
For tickets, go to: http://www.joffrey.org/nutcracker