How Long Is the Nutcracker Ballet? What It's About, Who Wrote It & What Kids Wear

The Ballet Issue · At a Glance

How Long Is the Nutcracker Ballet?

Most full productions of The Nutcracker run about two hours, including one intermission. Shorter family versions can run 60 to 90 minutes, so check your theater's listing.

How Long Is the Nutcracker Ballet?

A full Nutcracker is about two hours. Act I, the Christmas party and the battle with the Mouse King, runs roughly 45 to 50 minutes. After an intermission of about 15 to 20 minutes, Act II in the Land of Sweets runs another 40 to 50 minutes. Every ballet company stages its own version, so times vary slightly from theater to theater.

Bringing a little one? Many theaters offer shorter family performances. For a first Nutcracker, choose an aisle seat, plan a snack at intermission, and dress her in something soft enough to sit in for two hours.

What Is the Nutcracker About?

Act I. On Christmas Eve, a family gives a grand holiday party. A young girl, Clara (called Marie in some versions), receives a wooden nutcracker from her mysterious godfather, Drosselmeyer. At midnight the toys come to life. The Nutcracker leads the toy soldiers into battle against the Mouse King and his army, and Clara saves him. The Nutcracker turns into a prince and takes her through the glittering Land of Snow.

Act II. Clara and the Prince arrive in the Land of Sweets, ruled by the Sugar Plum Fairy. Dancers from around the world perform in her honor, followed by the Waltz of the Flowers and the famous Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, played on the bell-like celesta. In many productions Clara wakes up at the end, wondering if it was all a dream.

Who Wrote the Nutcracker?

The music was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The story comes from E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1816 tale, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, as retold in French by Alexandre Dumas. The original choreography was by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, and the ballet premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in December 1892. More than a century later, it is the holiday ballet families return to every year.

What Kids Wear to the Nutcracker

Many children dress for the Nutcracker the way they would for Christmas Eve: velvet, satin and tulle in red, ivory, pink or gold. Whether she is seeing the ballet in London, Edinburgh or Dublin, in Paris, Monaco or Zurich, or across Asia in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore or Seoul, choose a dress she can sit in comfortably for two hours, and skip anything tall on her head that blocks the view behind her.

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