Pacific Northwest Ballet The Nutcracker Review
December 25, 2025 | Digital
Since the premier of its first known version in 1892, The Nutcracker ballet has become as synonymous with the winter holidays as gingerbread men and fireside stockings.
Pacific Northwest Ballet’s slant on George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, totally unique to the Seattle-based company, is a gorgeous spectacle, delivering the instant magic and suspension of disbelief that draws sold-out shows year after year. This year marks its tenth anniversary.
A multi-media triumph, the production opens with a scene-setting animated film that whisks audiences through quiet woods and a quaint, snow-clad New England town to the Stahlbaum’s stately home. As we enter, Clara (Paige Clark) quickly becomes the center of attention, and it is through her eyes the narrative unfolds.
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Pacific Northwest Ballet The Nutcracker Review
The first act centers on the Stahlbaum’s Christmas eve party, a picture of old-time elegance complete with a grand, glittering tree, smartly-dressed children, and formal social dancing.
With a sharp eye, you can observe small vignettes in the background – parents commiserating over their children’s poor behavior, concern over elderly grandparents, or young boys fighting over a toy – which altogether help construct the integrity of the scene.
While essential to the narrative, the first-act party scene often fails to impress, hampered by sluggish pacing and a general lack of dynamism. Ian Falconer’s richly colored, gently surreal scenic and costume designs, however, bring a welcome vitality to the stage, imbuing both this act and the next with the dimensional charm of a pop-up storybook.
The second act takes place in the Land of the Sweets, a bright, fantastical world inhabited by magical characters who represent international delights such as Hot Chocolate (Audrey Malek and Zsilas Michael Hughes), Coffee (Juliet Prine), and Tea (Larry Lancaster).
This act is structured in a series of climaxes, with each character arriving as its own distinct variation in celebration of the young Clara and Nutcracker Prince’s (Maxwell Adams) victory over the evil Mouse King (Luther DeMyer).
From the get-go, casting is spot-on.
Leta Biasucci is radiant as the Sugar Plum Fairy, dancing with the relaxed composure of someone who no longer has to worry about the steps; her partner, Lucien Postlewaite, matches her with calm assurance and gracious musicality.
The rest of the cast impresses as well. Malek and Hughes shine in the Hot Chocolate variation, delivering buoyant, elastic firebird leaps that land just shy of excessive; Prine is mesmerizing as the mysterious Peacock, rendering each step with a jeweler’s precision; and Lancaster lights up the stage in the Green Tea Cricket variation, bringing a delightfully spritely energy to the role and making it just fun to watch.
But if there’s one moment that steals the show for me, it’s Waltz of the Flowers.
Amanda Morgan leads the variation as the Dewdrop with an airy, natural ease that makes it look almost too easy (though we know better).
Do you remember when your ballet teacher told you to let the movement continue beyond your fingertips?
Morgan actually looks like that.
Waltz of the Flowers is a prime example of the power of the ensemble, such that what is most striking is not in the grand sweeping movements or almost hypnotic patterns, but the seamless way in which all dancers contribute to something greater than the sum of its parts.
Overall, PNB’s Nutcracker felt familiar but fresh, clearly made for the modern audience.
Featured Photo of Pacific Northwest Ballet company dancers and PNB School students in the finale from George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, choreographed by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust. Photo © Angela Sterling.
