The Nutcracker ballet is a holiday tradition. Productions are mounted all over the world and many audience members attend repeatedly. Musicians and dancers rely on the Nutcracker as a regular staple during the winter months. With so many repeated performances things inevitably go wrong. Slight changes might not be noticed but the following irregularities are now infamous.
Some problems are not in our control. One year the Guadalupe River overflowed from excessive rain and the basement of the San Jose Center for Performing Arts flooded. The musicians had to trudge through the puddles to get to the basement pit entrance. Unsuccessful attempts were made to remove the water with a sump pump. Everyday a new odor of mildew filled the air.
The Cleveland Ballet performed their first Nutcracker on December 12, 1979. The tickets did not arrive and the audience waited outside the box office in a snow storm. Eventually the theater opened and people took any available seat. The performance started 45 minutes late but was so well received that standing ovation followed each half.
Some inside stories revolve around conductor or musician mishaps. Many years ago there was a matinee performance at the Cupertino Flint Center. The conductor did not show up, thinking the performance was in the evening. The orchestra nominated David Schoenbrun, a bassist, to conduct from the podium. He had no baton and no musical score. With a xylophone mallet in one hand he lead the group “I didn't know that I was supposed to look at the stage and make sure the dancers were ready. I am sure I started the pieces before they were in place.” Luckily the conductor showed up in time for the second half and finished the show.
For years the former San Jose Symphony used an old celeste which clanked away predictably during the solo of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. In recent years, a synthesizer replaced the original instrument. One night during intermission the power to the Yamaha DX7 was accidentally turned off. The sounds reset when the power was restored. When it came time to produce a celeste sound, an alien noise came from the speakers instead.
Problems can even occur with crew members. The pyrotechniques expert was late to one performance. Explosives had to be loaded into the set but the show was already in progress. The costume department quickly sewed together two capes to fit the large crew member. No one on stage or the audience knew why the extra large dancer was moving around the party scene stopping in each corner of the room.
The Oakland Ballet version of the Nutcracker used paper confetti to represent snow. It was gently released through the sifter at the top of the curtain. Unfortunately, there was rip in the device and instead of evenly drifting snow, one large heavy clump fell out on the dancers.
For dancers it is an occupational hazzard that one might slip or fall. Ballet San Jose's Music Director, Dwight Oltman, remembers a time that the male lead didn't catch the ballerina as she dove into his arms. "It was so startling that I didn't know whether or not to stop the music. She got up off the floor and eventually caught up with the music."
Sometimes dancer blunders are not accidental. On the Kirov Ballet's tour of Mexico City the mice and toy soldiers were played by young teens. The battle scene was taken too literally as real punches were thrown and the unpopular dancer could be heard calling out in pain.
The Pas de Deux which ends the second half was once danced by a pair in a quarrel. The man put the woman down sharply on her points and during his next spin she took the opportunity to elbow him in the ribs.
The biggest fear of playing in the pit is that something or someone will fall in. Santa Rosa's dancing bear fell into their pit during Nutcracker. At the Flint Center a male dancer miscalculated the edge of the stage. With agility he maneuvered through the cello section and landed in an open space. Symphony Silicon Valley's timpanist, Rob Erlbach tells of the time a mechanical mice drove off the stage into the pit. "It landed on the smallest timpani drum and broke the head. I couldn't play on it after that."
The next time you wonder if performing the same show night after night gets mundane remember that in live performances anything can happen.
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