Nutcracker?

Question:

Nutcracker?

Which version is the original?
I have seen the same one all my life, at the same place. This year I went somewhere different. And it was alot different! So then I realized that there was different ones... so just how many are there??

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Check out the Pacific Northwest Ballet: The Nutcracker, go to www.pnb.org

Pacific Northwest Ballet Nutcracker

Pacific Northwest Ballet Nutcracker Pacific Northwest Ballet's Nutcracker dazzles Northwest audiences each holiday season. The production's brilliant blend of costumes, sets and choreography is unique to Seattle and creates a magical world enjoyed by children and adults alike. Choreographer Kent Stowell collaborated with acclaimed children's author and illustrator Maurice Sendak to create Nutcracker in 1983. Each year, over 100,000 people come to McCaw Hall to see PNB's Nutcracker — one of the best holiday productions in the United States.

While creating the scenario for the production, Stowell and Sendak gathered inspiration from the original 1816 E.T.A. Hoffmann story, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, as well as Marius Petipa's original scenario for the ballet, which was first performed in 1892. PNB's Nutcracker, set to the famous score by P.I. Tchaikovsky, whisks the audience away into Clara's enchanting dream world.

The entire company of professional dancers and more than 170 students from Pacific Northwest Ballet School will dance in 39 performances of Nutcracker during the 2005 holiday season. Audiences are sure to enjoy PNB's 27-foot mouse king, the splendid Christmas tree that grows from 14 to 28 feet tall, the land of snow, and all the magical characters in this special adaptation of a classic story.