New York City Ballet has cancelled performances for "The Nutcracker" for December of this year. There are very tentative plans perhaps to stage it in early 2021 but that's not certain.
"The Nutcracker" was first staged by City Ballet in 1954, nearly 70 years ago, and has been performed every year without fail since then. Not even terrorist attacks or economic crises has stopped it -- but a pandemic did. This is the original and definitive American version of this ballet classic, the American Mother of All Nutcrackers.
This is a huge financial hit for City Ballet -- "The Nutcracker" is their Avengers, their Star Wars, their sure-fire hit franchise that just mints money without fail. It's the ballet that people who otherwise don't go to the ballet go to see. I was stunned to see that it grosses over $15 million a year for City Ballet, more than some movies.
It's also a big cultural loss for NYC -- along with the lighting of the Rockefeller Christmas tree and New Year's Eve in Times Square, it's one of the biggest holiday events in the city. So this is a big loss -- for now.
No doubt the Sugarplum Fairy will dance once more.
P.S. I was in "The Nutcracker" as a kid as I've blogged about before.
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