Word: clara
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...mentioned before, the gaggle of children who perform in the ballet help make it both entertaining to kids and adorable to adults. What pint-sized prima donna ballerina didn't want to be Clara, prancing about onstage in the swirliest dress with the best doll and dancing that breathtaking (and romantic?) duet with the Nutcracker Prince? Some of the intensely traditional ballet's parts, however, may ring a bit uncomfortable with audiences today--all the little boys receive guns and promptly pretend to shoot one another, while all the little girls receive dolls and are content to sit and rock...
...read it right the first time. Boston Ballet's The Nutcracker, one of the most popular ballets of all time, is back in its 33rd year of seasonal splendor at the Wang Center and it features some of the cutest creatures ever to grace the stage. Clara and her Victorian-style ilk may have the fluffiest and most elaborate dresses the dancers from the Palace of Sweets may don more elaborate sequin patterns than the average prom queen but the stars of the show are the adorable animals. The repertoire of the dancing bear (danced by Zach Grubbs, Marc Estrada...
...story, as many know, opens as everyone in a sweet little Victorian-era town is getting ready for Christmas. Clara (Marie Ceranowicz) and Fritz (Hobraiam Suarez) and their parents host an enormous and delightful party, where the mysterious Dr. Drosselmeyer (Laszlo Berdo) gives Clara a Nutcracker toy that Fritz promptly breaks. (It is interesting to note that in this year's production, Fritz does not get spanked or punished in any way by his parents.) Drosselmeyer, however, takes pity on poor Clara--at midnight, he transforms the living room into a massive battlefield where the Nutcracker, brought to glorious life...
Daniel Pelzig has made a significant number of changes in this year's Nutcracker, some of which are for better and some for worse. Gone is the scene in which Clara and Fritz playfully try to peek through the door at the pre-gala happenings; gone also is the spicy one-woman, four-men "Spanish Dance" (it is now a simpler pas de deux). But these small changes do not make much difference in the overall appeal of the show--it remains as graceful and as cutely comical as it ever...
There may be some small flaws with Boston Ballet's The Nutcracker, however, they remain few and far between and hidden under the frilly layers of breathtaking spectacle. Filled with gorgeous costumes, glorious sets and amazing special effects (particularly noteworthy are the hot-air balloon that Clara and the Nutcracker Prince fly away on, as well as Drosselmeyer's subsequent flight across stage), The Nutcracker is sure to leave audiences spellbound with the wonder and magic of the season, neatly packaged onstage, for the 33rd year in a row. The dancers are magnificent. The music is enchanting...