Community Corner

Here's Where To See 'The Nutcracker' This Holiday Season. Sweet!

This timeless holiday ballet, with its soaring Tchaikovsky score, has become a seasonal favorite for many families--for good reason.

By Editor Pam DeFiglio

It doesn't matter one bonbon that the story line of the much-celebrated holiday ballet "The Nutcracker" doesn't make a lot of sense.

A mysterious magician for an uncle? Fighting a mouse king and his soldiers with a slipper? Having coffee and tea come alive?

But who cares if it doesn't make sense? "The Nutcracker" has the fantasy elements of a dream, that's for sure, but the reason we go see it is for the Christmas pageantry and drama of the first act--Clara's wild about the Nutcracker she receives as a gift, brother Fritz breaks it, and Clara determinedly nurses it back to health, until she goes to sleep and things get crazy--and the sheer artistry and spectacle of the second half, where dancers dressed as candy perform to Tchaikovsky's soaring, incredibly lovely music.

A good production of "The Nutcracker" has a Christmas party and dancing that will warm anyone's heart, costumes that will keep little girls (and big girls, too) rapt with their beauty, charm and humor in the second act, and athleticism and grace in dancing that will wow audiences of all kinds.

To help you find a production, we've listed several in the Chicago area.

Additional Nutcracker productions, including Lincolnshire, Crystal Lake, and the Chicago neighborhoods of Hyde Park, Rogers Park and Lakeview, can be seen here.


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