The Nutcracker at the Boston Ballet

I went to see The Nutcracker on Wednesday night at the Boston Ballet.  Verdict: I cannot imagine a better rendition of The Nutcracker.  I'm not really a ballet person, and I don't have a yearly tradition of seeing the show, but I figured that if I got decent seats and went to the Boston Ballet, it had to be pretty good.  I wasn't disappointed.

The evening began with a face-numbing trek through the 20-degree + wind chill Boston evening, in search of snacks and a water bottle.  So cold.  Argh.  Things got better after that...


Things I liked about the Nutcracker at Boston Ballet:

1. Set changes.  I don't think I've ever seen a production with better set changes.  There were at least three layers in the original set.  The curtain opened on a piece of fabric that depicted some buildings, and the workshop building was backlit so we could see "into" the workshop.  Later, that layer rose, showing a Christmas through a thin, transparent sheet.  When the transparent layer rose, the scene went into motion.

Later, in the scene where the Nutcracker gets big, the previously-small set items like a chair and a sofa and a Christmas tree got huge -- the tree was pulled upwards until it was twice as big as its original size, and the set pieces were replaced with big versions.  The Boston Ballet went all out on this scene.

After the intermission, the curtain opened on that transparent layer again.  The scene was a dreamy cloud land, which was created by filling the stage with a couple of feet of fake fog.  The fog was held in by the transparent layer, so we could really look at the "clouds" from the side.  When the transparent curtain rose and the dancing began, the fog spilled out.  It was a very cool effect.

2. Flying things.  At the end of the first act, right before the intermission, a huge wooden hot air balloon was lowered onto the stage.  Clara and the Nutcracker got in, and it was lifted off the stage!  It takes a huge production to pull off something like that.  Right after the intermission, the balloon was flying around a bit before it landed again.  Also, the guy who gave Clara the Nutcracker was flying through the air at various points in the show...just for good measure.

3. The baby mouse and the gingerbread man.  There were some small parts that you don't see much in normal productions (I think).  For example, the evil mice also included a "baby mouse," played by a little boy.  It was pretty cute.  There was also a gingerbread man costume, and some people got into a fight over the gingerbread man, causing one of its arms to be ripped off!

4. Good dancing and costumes.  I'm not really a ballet person, so I can't comment on this too much, but everything seemed really smooth.  Dancers didn't seem to mess up.  Lots of people in the audience clapped at various dance moves, so I guess the ballet regulars liked it too.  The costumes were also great -- colorful, sparkly, varied.  They were very pretty.  Some of the ballerinas were supposed to look like flowers, and their skirts looked very much like flower petals.  Well...okay, nearly all the costumes were great.  Some of the guys had very form-revealing pants (complete with slight bulges in the front), such that you see their, uh, gluteal musculature in great detail.  Maybe this is normal and I'm just not used to the ballet.

Overall: I really recommend seeing The Nutcracker at the Boston Ballet.  Even if you don't usually go to the ballet, you'll be able to tell how well done it is.  No, they aren't paying me to write this...it's just hard to imagine any improvements they could make.