A Dancing Holiday Fairytale in Two Acts
Though bedridden throughout the Christmas holiday, Marie has her keen imagination, as well as her favorite doll, Claire, to lift her spirits. With help from her godfather, she also finds a new leading man to aid Claire in her misadventures. He is, of course, the Nutcracker.
Claire and Nutcracker’s quest to relieve the Princess Perlipat from a curse brings them to Australia, South America, and even chilly Siberia, home of the toy-making Grandfather Frost. Their quest to apprehend the thieving packrat Krampus brings them to a tea plantation, and then to the interior of a coffee tin, where a fortunetelling genie operates the smallest café in the world. Will Claire’s cleverness and the Nutcracker’s tenacity be enough to restore order to the kingdom? Only Marie and her godfather will ever know the answer. |
E. T. A. Hoffman’s The Nutcracker and the Mouse King is the original incarnation of this much-beloved story. Many of the book’s rich details, however, have struggled to make it to either the stage or the screen. What separates this adaptation from the others is its reverence for Hoffman’s tale, coupled with its commitment to Peter Tchaikovsky’s timeless musical score.
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