I have often wondered why the heck ballet companies always decide to do Nutcracker every year instead of mixing their offerings up a bit. I know it is a money making show that pays for other productions, but there are three companies performing it in my city alone!
Sure there are theatre companies that do A Christmas Carol every year, but it is nowhere close to the frequency with which Nutcracker is performed.
From some observations I have made of regular season ballet performances, I don’t think the show is helping to convince people to come for the Nutcracker and return for the Coppelia.
Just to be fair though, I thought I would check to see if anyone was doing any alternative shows.
I Goggled Christmas Carol Ballet and found one performqance in upstate NY, Traverse City, MI and Chattanooga, TN. There is a production in Australia. Royal New Zealand Ballet has done it, but aren’t this year. Northern Ballet Theatre in the UK last performed it in 2003.
London’s Royal Festival Hall did it in 2000. Athens (GA) Ballet Theatre did it in 1999, as did Honolulu Ballet Theatre.
It goes further back in time from there.
I Googled It’s A Wonderful Life Ballet and came back with nothing except a teasing mention of the ballet in a Ballet Oklahoma dancer’s bio (scroll down to Emily Fine)
Googling Messiah Ballet turned up a load of links–all of the in Canada, with the exception of past productions by Carolina Ballet. Granted, few of the productions are/have been performed at Christmas, (Easter is the alternative time of the year it is performed), but it was the only other subject area I could think that might be turned into a ballet.
I don’t know if the fact that many companies who have done non-Nutcracker performances haven’t done them in a long time is an indication that people are so used to the concept of Nutcracker, they can’t imagine going to see any other subject.
Some might say the ballets have their audiences well-trained to accept what they are offering. Yet the fact they can’t wean people away from Nutcracker and on to a variety of shows may mean they have the people trained to a fault.
Many of the original articles are no longer available from the respective newspapers, but this post-Christmas 2005 summary from Artsjournal tells an interesting tale.
Boston-Cutting salaries because they were booted from the Wang Center by the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and had to make due in a smaller space.
Colorado- Fights Radio City Christmas show to a draw
Pittsburgh-disappointing holiday sales (and this is before they stopped using live music)
Philadelphia-Penn Ballet’s numbers hold steady.
Utah-Opening season with Nutcracker because it is money maker.