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Seattle’s Sendak/Stowell ‘Nutcracker’ to see last season in 2014

November 28–December 28, 2014
Music: Peter
According to an article by Seattle Times Reporter Moira Macdonald, this is the last year the Pacific Northwest Ballet will use the staging by Maurice Sendak/Kent Stowell for the “Nutcracker.” It will be replaced in 2015 with a new version using George Balanchine’s 1954 choreography and new costumes and sets by Ian Falconer.
Nutcracker-copyMacdonald wrote: Pacific Northwest Ballet’s “Nutcracker,” with lavish sets and costumes by Maurice Sendak and choreography by Kent Stowell, has been a tradition for Seattle-area families since 1983. Thousands of little girls in party dresses and their brothers in holiday sweaters have gazed up in awe at the fanciful, colorful world on PNB’s stage: the enormous grandfather clock, the massive Mouse King’s tail, the mournful peacock, the dancing ocean waves as a heroine is whisked by boat to a magical kingdom.
But audiences will bid this production bon voyage next season: The 2014 holiday staging of the Sendak/Stowell “Nutcracker” will be its last, PNB announced Wednesday. It will be replaced in 2015 with a new version using George Balanchine’s 1954 choreography and new costumes and sets by Ian Falconer (best known for the “Olivia” series of children’s books).
The reason for the change? Ticket sales.
Fun facts about the “Nutcracker:”
PNB’s current ‘Nutcracker’
Source: E.T.A. Hoffman’s “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” (1816)
Composer: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Op. 71, 1891-1892)
Designer: Maurice Sendak (“Where the Wild Things Are,” “In the Night Kitchen”)
Choreographer: Kent Stowell
First performance: Dec. 13, 1983, at Seattle Center Opera House (now McCaw Hall)
Number of times performed: About 1,100
Number of children in the cast: 85 per show
Number of costumes: 200-plus
Number of pointe shoes worn out per “Nutcracker” season: About 500
Height of Christmas tree: Constructed by Boeing engineers in a flight hangar, this set piece “grows” from 14 to 28 feet in height during each show
Spinoffs: Two: A 1984 New York Times best-selling book, “Nutcracker,” illustrated by Maurice Sendak; and a feature-length film version in 1986
Source: Pacific Northwest Ballet
Season preview
Pacific Northwest Ballet, 2014-2015
The final bow for the Maurice Sendak/Kent Stowell version of “Nutcracker” will take place Nov. 28-Dec. 28, 2014. Tickets are currently on sale to PNB subscribers and will be available to the general public starting May 19. Single-ticket sales for the season (not including “Nutcracker”) begin July 21. Ticket info: 206-441-2424 or www.pnb.org.
Highlights of the 2014-2015 season: