Sunday, December 24

[dirac]

Dancers and critics explain why "The Nutcracker" has become a holiday staple for ballet companies.

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The Nutcracker’s popularity is a lifeline for many dance companies. At City Ballet, The Nutcracker’s six-week run accounts for 45 per cent of the company’s annual ticket sales—a number that is not unique to City Ballet, Kaufman says.

“Most ballet companies can’t exist without it,” she says. “It funds the rest of the year. [On top of ticket sales], there are the gift shops in the lobby selling Nutcracker cookie cutters and tree ornaments and all that kind of thing. It’s absolutely critical to the bottom line.”

 

[dirac]

A review of the English National Ballet and Royal Ballet Nutcrackers by Sarah Crompton in The Observer.

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Certainly, Wayne Eagling’s 2010 production for English National Ballet tries my patience. Peter Farmer’s designs are picturesque but cast in gloom by David Richardson’s crepuscular lighting, and Eagling’s solution to the assorted difficulties of the narrative is to turn the entire thing into Clara’s dream, and let the evil Mouse King pursue her from her home to the Kingdom of Sweets.