#InTheLoop | A Perfect Day! Watch ‘The Nutcracker’ + Hang Out with Santa
BY QEDC It's In Queens
It’s a good holiday story with a great troupe and the best after-party ever.
LaGuardia Performing Arts Center presents The Nutcracker + Visit to Santaland in Long Island City on Sunday, Dec. 18, at 3:30 pm.
First, the Joffrey Ballet School offers a blend of dance and music specially designed for school-age children while relating a classic holiday adventure through a fantasy world of dolls, fairies, mice, princes, snowflakes, and toy soldiers. After the show, the public is invited to meet cast members and visit Santa Claus in a magical toyland. At about the same time in the Main Stage lobby, beloved blind R&B musician Danny Kean leads a sing-along of holiday music.
Tickets are $20 with a 15 percent discount for groups of at least four people.
Created in 1892, The Nutcracker is a two-act Russian ballet with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It varies from production to production, but the plot generally follows a German girl on Christmas Eve. At first, family and friends are in the parlor, marveling at the Christmas tree. Later that night, she returns to the parlor to find everything from a life-size nutcracker to a battle between gingerbread soldiers and mice that involves tin soldiers and a multi-headed mouse king. The nutcracker transforms into a prince who leads the female protagonist through a pine forest where snowflakes dance in the moonlight. The next stop is the Land of Sweets where Sugar Plum Fairies rule the roost. All ends well with a candy-heavy celebration and dances.
Founded in 1953, Manhattan-based Joffrey Ballet School offers pre-professional training, after-school programs, and summer intensives.
With an address at 31-10 Thomson Ave., the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center’s Mainstage Theatre seats 740 guests on a single level plus up to 12 guests in a wheelchair section. It also has a Little Theatre where the Santa event will take place.
Images: LaGuardia Performing Arts Center