PNB Nutcracker 2014

[kfw]

The film makes a transition between a real world and an imagined one for you -- in the theater, we do that work.

Very interesting. This is a bit but one thing that surprised me when I saw Balanchine's Nutcracker Sunday, not having seen it live for 13 years, was how vivid the characterizations were (from the Second Ring). I've watched the NYCB film many times, and I expected to miss the closeups. But the acting was so sharp that I didn't.

[sandik]

Not really off topic at all -- I always wonder how the difference between a filmed version of a stage production will read, and will affect how we see the stage version. Glad to hear that the film didn't make the live version feel odd.

[Helene]

I haven't seen the PNB movie in a while, but if I remember correctly, there was a long intro during the overture of Drosselmeier's workshop, and also Clara watching the ballerina doll through the windows of a doll house. (I don't remember how the Soldier Doll was filmed.)

The NYCB movie did some flying overhead thing during the big symphonic intro into the snow kingdom, which on stage is the bed on wheels moving around the sleeping Marie. In the Stowell, that music is to the neoclassical pas de deux for the now adult Clara and the adult Nutcracker Prince, and there's no need to fill up the music with special effects.

[sandik]

Thanks for filling in the blanks -- my copy of the DVD is around here somewhere, but where that might be, specifically, is a little hazy.

(that is my sister's motto, actually -- hic alicubi est. which translates to "it's around here somewhere.")

[Bored_on_Wall_Street]

I caught Saturday night's production. I have seen the staging a few times, and will miss it immensely. I won't maintain its a great work of choreography (although some pieces--the snowflakes, in particular---show real geometric intelligence), but the strength of this production is the design and staging. I think the meta-textual elements of it have probably been written about to death, but, wow, do I love the ending, with the layers collapsing back on themselves with the music, as the stage and reality reset back to where we started.

While I very much like elements of Balanchine's, and respect its spot in American culture, I think we're all losing something very unique by PNB mothballing this, which (heresy as it may be for me, as a life long new Yorker to say), is my favorite nutcracker.

[Helene]

The NPR story:

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islistfalse&id=3712549&m=37279007

[sandik]

The Seattle Times ran some photos of the Nutty Nutcracker

[Helene]

Love the one of the usher .

[Helene]

Caveat: I don't have the Balanchine "Nutcracker DVD" and I'm trying to rely on memory from over a decade ago. I'm trying to compare the Stowell/Sendak "Nutcracker" to the Balanchine "Nutcracker" role-wise, and this is what I have so far:

Mime and character roles, Act I:

• In S/S Drosselmeier appears after the overture to lead the Pirlipat/Mouse King/Nutcracker scene; no equivalent in GB.
• In S/S grandparents are guests (that enable guest appearances); in GB, they are character dancing roles in the party dance.
• In S/S there are a separate pair of little kids who bicker; in GB, they are Marie and Fritz.
• In S/S, Clara is a tween, with two tween friends; in GB, all of the children are around the same age.
• In S/S there is no nephew role; in GB, the nephew appears throughout Act I, once he arrives with Drosselmeier.
• In S/S the mouse family (one woman, one boy, one girl) that triggers the battle; in GB there's a bunny soldier.
• In S/S after his exit from the party, Drosselmeier disappears until Act II; in GB there is the extended mime scene to the violin solo from Sleeping Beauty while Clara sleeps.
• In S/S there is a cavalry; in GB there are foot soldiers.

Dancing roles, Act I

• In S/S, there is the Pirlipat/Mouse King/Nutcracker dance after the overture (three kids); no equivalent in the GB version.
• In S/S, there is more dancing for the Warrior Mouse than for the GB seven-headed Mouse King
• In S/S, there is a ballerina doll; in GB there is Colombine and Harlequin, both danced by women
• In S/S, there is a masque (music from "Pique Dame") for two men and woman; no equivalent in the GB version
• In S/S, there is a neoclassical pas de deux for adult Clara and Prince (to the bed music in the GB version); no equivalent in the GB version.

Character and mime roles, Act II

• In S/S, Pasha (Drosselmeier in disguise) has a role throughout the Act; no equivalent in the GB versions
• In S/S, there is a mime scene during the Act II overture for Clara and Prince; in GB this is danced by the Angels.
• In S/S, the Prince does the mime, aided by Clara; in GB the nephew does.
• In S/S, tween Clara appears for the last 10 seconds; in GB Marie has a mime role and watches Act II.

Dancing roles, Act II

• In S/S, for the students, there are Pasha's slaves (many ages), Chinese Tiger (4 girls on point), and in Toy House; in the GB version, there are students in Angels during the overture, in Candy Cane, in Tea (4 girls on point), and in Mother Ginger (similar to Toy House).
• In S/S there are the leads for Moors, the solo Peacock, Flora and the flowers, and the Grand Pas; in the GB version, there are the leads for Hot Chocolate, the solo Coffee, Dewdrop and the Flowers, and the Grand Pas.
• In S/S, Chinese Tiger is danced by a student in a Sendak Tiger costume; in GB this is a male solo.
• In S/S, there is Commedia for two women and a man; in GB it's a female solo and four females corps.
• In S/S, there are three virtuoso men in Dervishes; in GB there's a great male lead backed by students in Candy Cane.
• In S/S, there's no one leading the kids in Toy House; in GB, there's Mother Ginger.

Dance wise for it's about even, apart from the two Pirlipat/Mouse King/Nutcracker dances. The biggest impact is in the role of Drosselmeier, and the next biggest looks to be on the kids, where the roles and ages shift around. I think NYCB has integrated guests into the production; I just don't remember how.

I'd appreciate it if people add info and post corrections.

[sandik]

I don't know the Balanchine well enough to elaborate, but I can say that Stowell and Russell worked hard to include a wide variety of children roles -- there are certainly a good number of parts for small children, but they also wanted to include roles for tweens, more advanced students who are at a point in their training when they have to increase their commitment to the work at the same time that the rest of their lives are becoming more challenging. It's an easy time to quit, if you don't have a reason to stay...

[sandik]

There's a nice slice of Carrie Imler's Flora in this piece from KING 5 on striking the set after the run closed on Sunday.

[Helene]

I missed this video from December: it's about a mother (Marianne), who was in the Stowell/Sendak "Nutcracker" in its first year, and her daughter (Sadie), who was in it this final season: