The Writer's Perspective: The Nutcracker Prequel

Drosselmeier, Nephew (The Nutcracker), Princess Pirlipat, The King, The Queen

PROGRAM NOTES: In 1816, E.T.A. Hoffmann, a contemporary of the Grimm Brothers, wrote a short book called The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. It was not his only work. He was an influential music critic and also wrote horror tales and mysteries. Some of those stores found their way to the stage in operatic works such as Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann and Hindemith's Cardillac. Hoffmann was also a composer. In fact, the "A" he added to his name stood for 'Amadeus' - a tribute to Mozart. Hoffmann wrote eleven operas, a symphony, piano sonatas and other works. He wrote no ballets. Hoffmann ended his music and writing career the same year he wrote his Nutcracker story and returned to his job in the Prussian civil service.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote no books, although, like Hoffmann, he wrote eleven operas. Unlike Hoffmann, he wrote three ballets, including Casse-Noisette, better known as The Nutcracker, completed in 1892, just a year before his death of cholera.

I first encountered Hoffmann's book in 1986 when our touring theatre company was asked to write a family Christmas show for a mall near Wilmington, Delaware. The Nutcracker would be nice, I was told. Never having seen the ballet (except for those dancing mushrooms in Fantasia), I got a few videos and some books with titles like "The Story of the Nutcracker Ballet and sat down to see what parts of the story I could use. After several hours, the only thing I knew for sure was that there was this guy named Drosselmeier who gave a girl named Clara a nutcracker for Christmas. The nutcracker had a battle with some mice and then was transformed into a prince. The two of them travelled to the Kingdom of Sweets where they were entertained by a bevy of dancers including the Sugarplum Fairy and all that. At the end of the ballet, the two of them flew off together waving good-bye to the rest of the company. And there were no dancing mushrooms to be seen anywhere.

There really wasn't much of a story. Just as I was about to give up, I discovered a translation of Hoffmann's story illustrated by Maurice Sendak. As I read it, I discovered that the ballet only deals with half the story -- the beginning and the end. The REAL story is contained in the fairy tale that Herr Drosselmeier tells Marie (whose name, for no apparent reason, was changed to Clara in the ballet; note that we call her Marie in our musical).

There were no mushrooms here either, but there were sausages, mice, magic and nuts - lots of nuts. There was also a cast of characters that jumped off the page and urged me to put them on stage. I had the story I needed.

It's not Tchaikovsky's fault that he didn't put Princess Pirlipat and Madame Mouserinks in the ballet. Their broad characters wouldn't fit with the mood of the lush orchestrations and the stately elegance of classical ballet. Hoffman's book is earthbound and witty. Tchaikovsky's score is other-worldly and full of wonder - sort of a repeat of his Sleeping Beauty which he wrote a year earlier. I can't help but wonder what Gilbert and Sullivan would have done with the story. (Incidentally, they were contemporary with Tchaikovsky.)

I won't claim that we follow the story exactly, but I think we have captured the mood. We think Hoffmann would approve. At the very least, we don't think the audience will leave wondering what the story was about. I only wish I could have found some way to include dancing mushrooms.

Darryl Bojanowski, Artistic Director, A Premiere Playhouse, Columbus, OH 1992; 1993