Tickets are selling like sugar plum hotcakes for The Nutcracker at Queens College’s Colden Auditorium on Sunday, Dec. 1, at 3 pm.
New York Theatre Ballet offers this rendition of the timeless Christmas classic, which has a 1907 Art Nouveau theme with mischievous mice, sparkling snowflakes, dancing flowers, a time-bending clock, and a luminous owl. (Don’t be surprised if the stage looks like it popped out from a painting by Gustav Klimt or Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.)
General admission is $30.
About one hour long, this version is considered appropriate for ages three and up. Longtime NYTB professional Keith Michael created the choreography.
Colden Auditorium is on Queens College’s Flushing campus. The entrance is at 153-49 Reeves Ave., and a few free parking lots are in the vicinity.
Created in 1892, The Nutcracker is a two-act Russian ballet with a libretto by Marius Petipa and music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It varies from production to production, but the original plot follows a German girl, Marie, on Christmas Eve. At first, family and friends are in the parlor of a home in Nuremberg, marveling at a Christmas tree. Later that night, Marie (Clara in some versions) 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. Then a 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. There’s some drama with the mouse king and other characters, but the show ends well with a candy-heavy celebration and dances.
Image: Kupferberg Center for the Arts