Edward Gorey on The Nutcracker

Tell me how anyone can sit through thirty-nine Nutcrackers in one season. Convince me.

At first I thought, my God, this is the most boring ballet in the history of the world. Then I began to go more and more. People say, oh nothing much happens in the first act, but the second act is lovely. For me it's the first act that's so marvelous. It's an aspect of Balanchine's genius that nobody has paid much attention to. That party is one of the most enchanting things ever set on the stage. The relations between the children and the adults, everything--are breathtaking. It's a Platonic party, the essence of every family party--the way it should be and never is, the party that no one has ever attended. Every year it gets a little bit better.

Naturally, on of the reasons for going to Nutcracker is to watch the mice carry on--somebody's doing something crazy and new and different every night--and the tree grow, and the bed whiz around. And these days Shaun O'Brien, as Drosselmeir, gives a performance that holds the whole thing together; the instant he comes on you're riveted. The choreography for the Snowflakes is heaven. No one notices it because it's so pretty and they're busy watching the snow come down. And set back in time the way it is, it's nostalgic in a lost-world-that-never-really-existed way. Of course it's a very ambiguous ballet--frightening and funny and strange and beautiful--like most of George's work.

Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gory on Edward Gory edited by Karen Wilkin. 2001. Page 19-20.