Sir Peter Wright's The Nutcracker celebrates 35th anniversary since its world premiere

Birmingham Royal Ballet continues its world-class performances in the city it calls home with the return of the acclaimed Christmas favourite, Sir Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker.

The production opens at Birmingham Hippodrome on Friday 21 November running through to Saturday 13 December, marking an incredible 35 years since its world premiere at the theatre in 1990.

At her parents’ lavish Christmas Eve party, Clara is given a mysterious Nutcracker Doll. Once all the guests have left, she sneaks downstairs to find her present and comes face-to-face with the fearsome King Rat, ready to do battle with the Nutcracker and his band of toy soldiers. As soon as King Rat is vanquished, Clara is whisked away on a magical adventure with the Nutcracker, travelling through to an enchanting kingdom where she is transformed into the Sugar Plum Fairy.

BRB’s inaugural Director, Sir Peter Wright celebrates his 99^th birthday during this year’s run. Sir Peter gave the production to the people of Birmingham as a thank you for welcoming the company (formerly known as Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet) to the city, when it moved from London.

Paul James CEO of BRB said “We are very proud to be celebrating this iconic production’s 35^th anniversary. Sir Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker has been performed over 600 times here in Birmingham and enjoyed by well over one million people across the Midlands and the UK, many of whom saw it as children and now bring their own families – a testament to its continuing popularity in Birmingham.”

Gaynor Share, a regular Nutcracker audience member, said “The first ballet I ever took my daughter to see was The Nutcracker in 2000 when she was eight years old and it opened her mind to the joy that is the ballet. She will be 33 this year and even if we don’t attend any other performance in the year, we always attend The Nutcracker together.”

The Nutcracker is an enchanting wonderland of dancing snowflakes, a flying goose, magical Christmas trees and of course the Sugar Plum Fairy, but did you know there are 126 individual roles across 50 dances; the King Rat costume weighs 10 kilos; the Company get through just under 1 tonne of Dry Ice for the run of a performance; the production features the full company of 60 dancers who wear over 150 costumes, and finally, the famous Christmas tree transformation scene takes roughly 47 staff to complete!

Sir Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker, which underwent a significant £1 million makeover in 2022, giving the classic ballet new life with updated sets and costumes by John Macfarlane, is performed by BRB’s company of world-class dancers accompanied by Tchaikovsky’s famous score performed by the acclaimed Royal Ballet Sinfonia.

Sir Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker runs at Birmingham Hippodrome from Friday 21 November – Saturday 13 December. For full casting and and how to book please go to www.brb.org.uk