Photos: Sally Cohn\Yi Chun Wu
The Bang Group presents the nineteenth annual production of Nut/Cracked on Thursday, December 16 at 7:30pm, Friday, December 17 at 7:30pm, and Saturday, December 18 at 3pm and 7:30pm, at the Flea Theater, 20 Thomas Street, NYC.
Tickets are $15 for students, seniors, and artists, $16 for groups of 10 or more, and $25 general admission, and can be purchased online here.
Delighting audiences for nearly two decades, Nut/Cracked is The Bang Group’s beloved, witty response to The Nutcracker, conceived as a fluid dance world where genres collide and jostle each other with a genial clamor in celebration of the winter holidays. Choreographer David Parker liberates The Nutcracker from its plot and tradition and seeks for it a new identity as a free-wheeling, genre-fluid vaudeville which breaks apart elements of the holiday season: surprise, anticipation, greed, community, generosity, and delight in a series of dances drawing inspiration from all corners of the dance canon—tap riffs and en pointe ballet by way of bubble wrap, disco, and Chinese take-out noodles, with modern and post-modern dance, disco, social forms and pure invention.
The Nut/Cracked production has been receiving rave reviews.
“Not only immensely entertaining but also intensely musical and witty, melding tap, disco, ballet and contemporary dance….Combines fantasy and silliness to marvelous effect.” — Roslyn Sulcas, New York Times
“You never know what’ll happen next, but when it’s over you find…a passionate declaration of naivete in the best sense: innocence regained.” — Alastair Macaulay, New York Times
Nut/Cracked features Chelsea Ainsworth, Dylan Baker, Louise Benkelman, Alex Biegelson, Clarence Brooks, Derek Crescenti, Erin Gottwald, Holly Jones, Jeffrey Kazin, Isaac Lerner, Alison Manning, Daniel Morimoto, Kimberly Murry, Nik Owens, David Parker, Amber Sloan, Tommy Seibold, and special guest dancers from The Steffi Nossen School of Dance & dancers from e.g. dance.
Music by P.I. Tchaikovsky with arrangements by Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Fred Waring & the Pennsylvanians, Raymond Scott Quintet, Westminster Bell Choir, The London Symphony Orchestra, The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden.
Produced by The Bang Group, choreographed by David Parker, rehearsal direction by Erin Gottwald, and lighting design by Jay Ryan.
All audience members will be required to show proof of vaccination before entry. Accepted forms are Excelsior pass or valid vaccine card. Audience members must also wear a mask that covers their nose and mouth at all times within the performance area.
Nut/Cracked is co-commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop in New York City and The Carlo Felice Opera House in Genoa, Italy. This is Nut/Cracked’s 19th consecutive season, and it has toured throughout the United States and to various destinations in Europe.
