New visions of sugar plum fairies dancing into Hancher

IOWA CITY - Hancher Auditorium audiences will see the Joffrey's new Chicago World's Fair-themed re-imagining of 'The Nutcracker” ballet before anyone else in the world.

The lavish, $4 million production, helmed by Tony-winning choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, will have five 'preview” performances in Iowa City from Dec. 1 to 4 before moving to Chicago's Auditorium Theatre from Dec. 10 to 30.

Tickets go on sale to Hancher donors April 25 and to the public June 10, at a price to be announced.

The Joffrey unveiled the collaboration Monday in its home base of Chicago and Tuesday from the new stage on which the ballet company will continue its more than 40-year love affair with Hancher and the University of Iowa.

'Coming back to Iowa City - every time - is like coming home,” said Joffrey Artistic Director Ashley Wheater, who danced in Robert Joffrey's visionary 1987 'Nutcracker,” which premiered at the former Hancher Auditorium. 'To sit here in this phenomenal, world-class performing arts center, beautifully, beautifully designed by Cesar Pelli, I think that you have a world-class theater and I think that you have always had world-class art.”

The performances will mark the first time in more than a decade that the Joffrey has appeared on a Hancher Auditorium stage. The former Hancher was devastated in the 2008 floods, and a new Hancher is expected to open in September.

Wheeldon's vision of 'The Nutcracker” spins the classic music and story elements into the construction of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. He has assembled a world-class design team to bring this to life: author Brian Selznick, who wrote 'The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” which led to Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning film, 'Hugo”; Tony-nominated scenery and costume designer Julian Crouch ('Hedwig and the Angry Inch”); award-winning puppeteer and 2015 MacArthur Genius grant winner Basil Twist ('The Addams Family” and 'The Pee-Wee Herman Show”); five-time Tony-winning lighting designer Natasha Katz ('An American in Paris,” 'Once” and the 2018 Broadway musical, 'Frozen”); and Tony-winning projection designer Benjamin Pearcy ('An American in Paris,” 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch”).

The entire team will come to Iowa City in November for final preparations.

Wheater said Selznick's new book for 'The Nutcracker” has 'everything we want.”

'It has tradition, it has spirit, it has a huge heart,” he said, adding that the overall production 'retains all of the values that we want as human beings. ...

There are lots of magical things that I am not allowed to talk about.”

The giant Christmas tree will still grow, snow will still fall and the production will still feature many area children dancing with the Joffrey's professional artists to Tchaikovsky's music, performed by Orchestra Iowa.

'Both the Joffrey and Hancher Auditorium are committed to honoring our rich histories,” said Chuck Swanson, Hancher's executive director. 'But we also believe it is important to look forward.”

Hancher is co-commissioning the new work with a $500,000 gift. Swanson said that with Hancher's 'generous donors and their love for the Joffrey,” that sum didn't take long to raise.

'It is incredibly exciting,” Wheater said. 'We are so grateful to Hancher Auditorium - to everybody here that supported the Joffrey through our long-term relationship - that we look forward to for another 42 years.”

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