The Joffrey Ballet celebrates the 10th Anniversary of Christopher Wheeldon’s The Nutcracker
Ten years ago, the Joffrey Ballet commissioned Christopher Wheeldon – with a generous $4 million budget – to create a new production of The Nutcracker. He finished choreographing the ballet in a wheelchair – he had fallen into the orchestra pit and broken his ankle.
Wheeldon set the ballet in 1893, the time of the Chicago World Fair. At the time, he told The New York Times: “I was always slightly bothered by the fact that ‘Nutcracker’ is about a child who has everything, then falls asleep and has more. I wondered how we could make the story more relatable.”
The initial reviews were mixed.
Joseph Houseal for Bachtrack wrote: “It is one thing to re-stage a ballet, and take the transformation of its socio-economic message as a goal. It is another to choreograph memorable and distinct choreography, of which there is virtually none. This matters because the point of The Nutcracker is a child’s dream, a fantasy, where characters appear, one after another, marvellous and surprising, exotic and entertaining. In Wheeldon’s hands, the Russian Cossacks become Buffalo Bill and three ballerina-cowgirls – a bit of a whitewash of the Wild West Show, and Buffalo Bill reduced to a yee-haw.
“The dances we remember from our youth – Waltz of the Snowflakes, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, the procession of ethnic dancers in characteristic dances, becomes just a series of convoluted dances in expensive costumes with no distinction.”
Ouch. But Lauren Warnecke for The Windy City Times concluded with: “This is Chicago’s Nutcracker. It is as rich and beautiful and complicated and resilient as our city. As things are tweaked, refined and finished, and as the dancers begin to live in this new and quite difficult choreography and let it breathe, like a fine wine, I imagine this Nutcracker will only improve with age.”
And it did.
Hedy Weiss for Chicago’s WTTW wrote in 2019: “This Nutcracker is a monumental production both in its storytelling and its design, yet it manages to beautifully interweave its grand scale elements with human scale emotions. And when it debuted on a notably snowy evening back in 2016 it came with all the weight of enormous expectations and a big price tag attached. Miraculously, that first performance was all but flawless on both an artistic and technological level. But this fourth season turns out to be the charm, with the storytelling and characterisations tighter and clearer, and the dancers more relaxed amidst all the complex projections, puppetry, masks, snow and complex design magic.”
Now The Nutcracker will pack ‘em in again for another 27 performances from 5 December until the end of the year.
Artistic Director Ashley Wheater says: “When we reimagined The Nutcracker a decade ago, our goal was to create a love letter to Chicago. A story rooted in its history, alive with its spirit, and reflective of the people who call it home. Christopher Wheeldon, one of the most brilliant choreographers of our time, brought that vision to life with extraordinary artistry. Reflecting on the 10th anniversary, it is incredibly rewarding to see how this production has become woven into the city’s cultural fabric.”
PERFORMANCES
The Joffrey Ballet performs The Nutcracker Friday 5 December 5 until Saturday 28 December 2025:
Friday, December 5 at 7:00 PM;
Saturday, December 6 at 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM;
Sunday, December 7 at 1:00 PM and 6:00 PM;
Thursday, December 11 at 7:00 PM;
Friday, December 12 at 7:00 PM;
Saturday, December 13 at 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM;
Sunday, December 14 at 1:00 PM and 6:00 PM;
Wednesday, December 17 at 7:00 PM;
Thursday, December 18 at 7:00 PM;
Friday, December 19 at 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM;
Saturday, December 20 at 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM;
Sunday, December 21 at 1:00 PM and 6:00 PM;
Tuesday, December 23 at 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM;
Wednesday, December 24 at 2:00 PM;
Friday, December 26 at 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM;
Saturday, December 27 at 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM;
Sunday, December 28 at 1:00 PM.
Tickets are available for purchase at the Lyric Opera Box Office, located at 20 N. Upper Wacker Dr., by telephone at 312.386.8905, or online at joffrey.org.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
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