Cheap George Balanchine's The Nutcracker (DVD) (Darci Kistler, Damian Woetzel, Kyra Nichols) (Emile Ardolino) Price

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Customer Reviews of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker

Impressive production; all-around fine performance; good DVD
All things considered, I have to say that this is quite an enjoyable theatrical presentation of Balanchine's "The Nutcracker." Looking at "the show" itself, its most rave-worthy characteristic is how well the team of Peter Martins (ballet master), Emile Ardolino (director) and Ralf Bode (cinematographer) collaborated to actually "choreograph the camera" to the movements of the performers. Thanks to a talented movie crew and an incredible amount of consideration given to viewing angles (read the description in the disc's "special features"), the TV always seemed to be showing exactly what I wanted to look at on the stage. Add in some nice work by Industrial Light & Magic, decent narration, and a top-notch production team, and the result is a superb presentation.

From a performance standpoint, I'd give this an A-minus mainly because the versions of "The Nutcracker" I've seen most often cast the Nutcracker Prince in a much more active role dancewise. Still, everyone else did a fantastic job. Noteworthy were the Pas de Deux by the Cavalier (Damian Woetzel) and Sugarplum Fairy (Darci Kistler), and the powerful dance presence of Coffee (Wendy Whelan). The other "Sweets" performed very well also. So long as you try not to picture Macaulay Culkin as a ballet dancer, you'll be okay. Let's face it: you can't expect the little guy to measure up next to the NYC Ballet, but he is there to add a little star appeal and possibly sell ballet to your kids (which may not be a bad idea). Nuff said. By the way, the younger performers from the School of American Ballet were wonderful.

Regarding disc features, the DVD has some cool stuff to offer: two viewing formats, 30-scene index, and some good production notes regarding the history of the show, camera choreography and description of ILM's special effects.

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Five Stars Despite Macauley
The one time that I've seen the George Balanchine production of 'The Nutcracker' in New York, I was standing at the back of the top balcony. I obviously couldn't see much even with the pair of 7x50 binoculars I brought, so I'm glad that this DVD has become available. The recording wasn't made before an audience but was nonetheless filmed on stage. It thus preserves the appearance and staginess of the original production, while the camerawork has more freedom and energy than it would have otherwise.

The dancers of the NYC Ballet and the students from its associated school, the School of American Ballet, have performed the Balanchine Nutcracker every Christmas season since 1969 (the film was made in 1993). I prefer this production in great part because children and not adults perform the children's roles unlike most of the other tapes and DVDs available. Here the kids are delighfully energetic and enthusiastic; the only sour note is Macauley Culkin as the nutcracker-prince. He attended the SAB for awhile, and he looks thoroughy bored at returning to his old haunts. I don't know if it's his fault or the director's, but his disdainful expressions are rather off-putting. He was obviously cast to draw a larger audience, and he certainly looks the part, but his dancing skills aren't good enough for what amounts to the lead role.

A recent article in the NYT said that the SAB has for some years been making a concerted effort to attract more boys (free tuition, no tights, frequent auditions, single-sex classes, etc.). The result is that all the boys' roles in this performance are filled by boys and not disgruntled little girls.

I quite enjoy this DVD, and I highly recommend it. It has few extra materials; only some short biographies and some footage about making the film. I would like to have had some rehearsal and backstage footage since I'm not familiar with how a ballet is put together.

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Not so Outstanding
This was a dissapointment. When I first watched the movie, I almost fell asleep during the first act. If I was you, just skip the entire first half and go right to the dancing snowflakes. The first act had no interesting roles dance wise. The second half was pretty good(dance roles of the sweets....hot chocolate,candy cane,etc.)Any part with Culkin was a drag, in the fact that his dancing was horrible and the steps that he was given were horrible too. The girl that played Marie looked like she could have been a good dancer, but they flunked out when giving her a role with no ballet dancing. If you are a fan of ballet dancing like me, I would not recommend this version of the Nutcracker. The only good parts were the dances of the sweets and the snowflakes, the rest was fast forward worthy material. So give yourself a break, and get a better version. I wish I had.