NEXTpittsburgh: Local landmarks, hometown pride and soaring classical ballet will take center stage when The Nutcracker transforms the Benedum Center into a winter wonderland.
The cherished holiday tradition of experiencing Tchaikovsky’s legendary ballet is about to get a whole lot sweeter this season, because Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s (PBT) 26-performance run of The Nutcracker ushers in not one but two momentous milestones for the world-class company.
3 comments:
Huh, I remember seeing the Nutcracker as a kid but I don't remember all the pittsburgh theming, if it existed. That said, it is kind of cool that the Nutcracker has been reimagined in a way that truly ties it into the spirit of the city that hosts it. Pittsburgh has a unique way of unabashedly inserting itself into larger world popular culture that I think would seem somewhere between hokey at best and egotistical at worst for many cities, yet somehow Pittsburgh always seems to do it with a level of grace and humor that makes it okay. I might have to go see the Nutcracker again this year with new eyes over a decade later.
I was really glad to see how this Nutcracker production truly adopted and prized local culture. Often the Nutcracker can become a rote thing, and Old Faithful that shoves ballet companies from the red to the black every year. It is justifiable in the minds of many to see the same ballet every year in the name of a holiday or Christmas tradition. So seeing a slight twist on the Nutcracker was outstanding. Knowing who your audience is is a true necessity for any performance, and this plays right into the well known Pittsburgh pride of place. These inclusions - such as the waving of the well known Terrible Towels during the battle scene - inject a lively and lifening round of humor into what can become a cold, dead, aloof, and elitist "classic". I often bemoan ballet's reticence to change, as it will likely come at the cost of cultural relevancy and audience. It is nice to see that not happen here.
I wish I could see this production! I love ballet and if you looked at my Youtube recommend right now, it would all American Ballet Theatre videos. So the fact that Pittsburgh's artistic director is from ABT is amazing. I'm not sure how to feel about the fact that The Terrible Towel and the penguins are in the Nutcracker, but anything to pull in more audiences is good. I'm always afraid of the beautiful artforms like ballet and opera being unappreciated by people nowadays, and regarded as boring, but hopefully this will pull audiences in. It looks beautiful from the video. I'd be interested to see what the updated storylines are, since so often the Nutcracker is repeated year after year with little changes. And I'm sure as a ballet dancer, performing in the Nutcracker every single year must be tedious as well. It'd be interesting to see how they change it up. I'm upset that I missed that student ticket day, because I don't think I can afford tickets.
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