The city’s most beloved ballet is getting its first makeover in 25 years this month.
Milwaukee Ballet’s The Nutcracker has become an annual tradition for many families in the region, and artistic director Michael Pink wanted to create a new version that would feel familiar but inventive. “There’s a lot of homage paid to the original version,” says Pink, who created new choreography for the show. “It’s about preserving tradition and making sure that people leave the theater with wide eyes and excitement, saying ‘Oh my goodness – I never thought it could be better than the last one.’”
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To that end, Pink worked closely with the company’s board of directors to launch a $5 million capital campaign for the new production, which hit its goal in September. And he’s been working just as closely with his staff to create a new visual language for the show that informs its set design, props and costuming.
New York- and Ohio-based designer Gregory Poplyk began sketching out the show’s 170 costumes about two years ago, and he’s been in communication with designers scattered across the world to get the details right. “One of the first things you do is establish coloration,” Poplyk says, explaining that each scene is given its own look and feel. “We move through the rainbow, but we move very specifically through different color progressions.”
Highly Adaptable
The story of Clara, Drosselmeyer and the Nutcracker Prince has been adapted countless times since it was first penned. Here are a few key dates:
1816: Prussian author E.T.A. Hoffmann publishes a dark fairy tale titled The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.
1844: Alexandre Dumas, author of The Count of Monte Cristo, reimagines the story to be more suitable for children.
1892: Composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet adaptation of Dumas’ Nutcracker receives mixed reviews when it premieres at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.
1934: The production is mounted outside of Russia for the first time, in London.
1954: George Balanchine choreographs a smashingly successful version that becomes the gold standard for many future interpretations.
1977: The Milwaukee Ballet Company first stages its own version of the classic Russian ballet.
Establishing the setting was also key in the update process. The set design team took inspiration from the period the ballet was originally written and set the production in a whimsical, colorful interpretation of the Victorian era. Exterior scenes include glimpses of ornate 19th-century row houses, and interior ones are decorated with stained-glass windows and fantastical floral wallpapering.
Poplyk and the rest of the team have also been involved in the construction of the garments, many of which feature rich fabrics, like velvet and satin, and extravagant detailing. About a third of the work was completed in-house, with help from the ballet’s costume manager, Mary Piering. The rest was outsourced to talented specialists. The production’s swan costumes were handled by the Milwaukee-based print company Olympus Group. “What they brought to the table is something totally different,” Poplyk says.
“It’s very rare that we have world premieres,” Pink says. “I encourage our community to be a part of it because we want to share it.”
The Nutcracker: Drosselmeyer’s Imaginarium runs from Dec. 8-26 at the Marcus Center.
