A Live in HD Simulcast of THE NUTCRACKER Performed by The Bolshoi Ballet Comes to The Ridgefield Playhouse

The Bolshoi Ballet's Nutcracker is two and a half hours of enchantment and magic! See it on the big screen in HD in a LIVE simulcast at The Ridgefield Playhouse on Sunday, December 23 at 12:55pm, part of Atria Senior Living Classical Series with support from Whistle Stop Bakery, underwritten by Jeanne Cook, Liz and Steven Goldstone, & Sabina and Walter Slavin. As the clock strikes midnight on Christmas Eve, Marie's wooden nutcracker doll comes to life and transforms into a prince! Soon joined by her other toys that have also come to life, Marie and her prince embark on a dreamy and unforgettable adventure. Along with Tchaikovsky's cherished score and some of the Bolshoi's greatest artists, The Nutcracker remains a treasure not to be missed!

The Nutcracker, based on a story by E.T.A. Hoffman called The Nutcracker and The Mouse King, a fantasy wherein a nutcracker comes to life on Christmas Eve to help a girl defeat an evil Mouse King, was a darker tale than the adaptation by Alexandre Dumas that was eventually brought to the stage. Tchaikovsky began work on it in 1891 and, on a trip home from the States where he'd been performing at Carnegie Hall which took him through Paris, discovered the celesta (an orchestral percussion instrument that resembles a small piano) and therein found the voice of his sugar plum fairies

The Bolshoi Ballet ("Great Ballet" in Russian) is the leading ballet company of Russia, famous for elaborately staged productions of the classics and children's ballets that preserve the traditions of 19th-century classical dance. The Ridgefield Playhouse offers free tickets to The Bolshoi Ballet in HD series to students 18 and younger as a way for parents to introduce their children to the arts. FREE tickets are also available to students 18 and younger for the Atria Senior Living Classical Series Live in HD screenings of The Metropolitan Opera and National Theatre of London.

For tickets ($25 | Members & Seniors $20 | Students $15 | FREE for students 18 and under), call or visit the box office, 203-438-5795 or go online at ridgefieldplayhouse.org. The Ridgefield Playhouse is a non-profit performing arts center located at 80 East Ridge, parallel to Main Street, Ridgefield, CT.