Flagler College Auditorium at Flagler College. The Nutcracker is probably America's most well-known ballet, a hallowed holiday tradition, attended religiously by a devoted audience that includes both dance fans and people who otherwise would be parked on the couch holding a remote. Each of Jacksonville's three productions has unique characteristics. The Community Nutcracker features the efforts of various dance schools working together on the ballet and is performed at the Florida Theatre. Florida Ballet's production, also at the Florida Theatre, marks the return of a small corps of paid professionals to the company.
Characters vary from show to show.
Some help develop the simplistic plot about a girl who receives a nutcracker for Christmas and dreams he is her prince. In the Florida Ballet production, for instance, Herr Drosselmeyer is sometimes good but sometimes sinister. Other characters are just, well, flaky. The character is nowhere in the story, she said. The snow flakes in her production exist in a democracy - there is no Snow Queen.