GEORGE BALANCHINE'S THE NUTCRACKER

Name: GEORGE BALANCHINE'S THE NUTCRACKER
Start: 2025-11-28T00:00:00
End: 2026-01-04T23:59:00
Location: Lyric Opera of Chicago

New York City Ballet

Run Dates

2025.11.28 ~ 2026.01.04

Lyric Opera of Chicago

About the show

George Balanchine's The Nutcracker® is one of the most complex theatrical, staged ballets in the company's active repertory. Based on the Alexandre Dumas père version of E.T.A. Hoffmann's tale, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (1816), it features 90 dancers, 62 musicians, 40 stagehands and more than 125 children from the School of American Ballet. Act I follows Marie and the Nutcracker through a Christmas Eve battle with mice and a magical snowflake waltz. Act II transports them to the Kingdom of the Sugarplum Fairy for dazzling divertissements. The production features a one-ton Christmas tree that grows to 41 feet, spectacular costumes by Karinska, and sets by Rouben Ter-Arutunian.

Details

Choreographer: George Balanchine Music: Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky (The Nutcracker, 1892) Costumes: Karinska; Masks by Lawrence Vlady Set Design: Horace Armistead; Rouben Ter-Arutunian (1964) Lighting: Jean Rosenthal Premiere: February 2, 1954, New York City Ballet, City Center of Music and Drama Original Cast: Maria Tallchief, Nicholas Magallanes, Tanaquil Le Clercq, Michael Arshansky, Alberta Grant, Susan Kaufman, Paul Nickel Sponsored by: The Travelers Companies, Inc.

Where it's been performed

Lyric Opera of Chicago

Chicago

United States