Nutcracker and Mouse-King (version 2)

On Christmas Eve, young Marie receives an unusual gift: a wooden nutcracker with a misshapen face and an unfortunate crooked mouth. When the household sleeps, magic awakens. The doll soldiers march from their cabinet, candies swarm the room in sweet battalions, and at the heart of it all, the Nutcracker leads his army against the Mouse King and his seven crowned courts. What follows is a battle as fierce as any fairy tale, and a story as tender as Marie's growing love for her unlikely champion. But Hoffmann's masterpiece holds secrets deeper than any ballet could capture: a tale of enchanted princes, a princess cursed to wax, and a debt of gratitude that one girl might just pay with her own heart. This is the story the music was made from, darker and more complex than the stage could ever show, a Christmas fantasy that remembers how childhood is both wondrous and frightening.