Seattle Gay News
Issue 47, Volume 47, November 22, 2019
Holiday Special
Mark Morris Dance Group’s The Hard Nut – Photo by Julieta Cervantes
Seattle Theatre Group presents Seattle premiere of Mark Morris Dance Group’s The Hard Nut MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP THE HARD NUT PARAMOUNT THEATRE December 6-15
This holiday season, Seattle Theatre Group (STG) presents the Seattle premiere of Mark Morris Dance Group’s The Hard Nut – a lavish, gender-bent love letter to the holiday classic The Nutcracker! Celebrating its 28th anniversary, the piece offers a brilliant blend of ballet, modern, and folk dance to create an updated classic fairytale featuring vibrant pop-art inspired scenery conceived by cartoonist Charles Burns and Adrianne Lobel. As part of STG’s 2019/2020 Broadway at The Paramount season, the production will run for 11 performances from December 6 – 15 at The Paramount Theatre. Fun for the entire family, The Hard Nut is not your average Nutcracker. This production takes the story from the straightlaced 1890s to the swinging 1970s with raucous parties, dancing G.I. Joes, and whimsical costumes, as well as a “Waltz of the Snowflakes” and “Waltz of the
Mark Morris Dance Group’s The Hard Nut – Photo by Julieta Cervantes
Flowers” like no other, featuring men and women dancing the same parts in the same costumes. Other gender-bent aspects of the
production include two prominent drag roles danced by men – Mrs. Stahlbaum and the Housekeeper – the latter of which
is performed by dancer Brandon Randolph en pointe. The show takes its title from the story-within-a-story of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, wherein an evil Rat Queen promises to restore the Princess Pirlipat’s beauty if a young man can crack the “hard nut” with his teeth. This mix of playfulness and exquisite dance, combined with the greatest respect for Hoffmann’s original nightmarish story and Tchaikovsky’s complete, original score, performed by a full live orchestra, earned The Hard Nut the winning spot in Ovation TV’s Battle of the Nutcrackers contest three years running. For this premiere, Seattle native Mark Morris joins the Group on stage to reprise the dual role of Dr. Stahlbaum and the King. Seattle native and former participant in STG’s DANCE This program, Aaron Loux will dance the principal role of The Nutcracker/Young Drosselmeier, while Seattle native Deepa Liegel will also dance in the roles of the Rat King and Rat Queen.
see THE HARD NUT page 5