NUTCRACKER! Magical Christmas Ballet Tickets

Dancers were excellent especially the children. The set design was sparce and uninspired. A shame that the music was canned.

Great dancers, sets and scenes.....a very entertaining evening!

When you jump into the air and land on the ground, what sound do you hear? Try it… Probably a loud thud! When you watch the Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker dancers jump into the air with such balance and grace, they land like a feather on the wood floor! Visually the dancers are brilliant in their performance of a well know story and I would recommend this to all audiences young and old.

I have seen numerous performances of the Nutcracker, and this was the least impressive. The two lead dancers were the only saving grace. They were truly exceptional. The overall production with its piped in music and sparse settings was really disappointing. The dance of the sugar plums was great. The theme dances were sparsely populated and seemed trivial with the comic inclusion of the large bull. This was a marketing gimmick, since it featured local kids, whose parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents felt obliged to attend. Some of them were quite cute.

Both of us have seen The Nutcracker numerous times. This year, we took our children ages 10 & 6 to see it for the first time. We chose the Moscow Ballet over Joffery Ballet based on reviews stating that the Moscow Ballet stayed true to the original music. Here is why we were disappointed; 1) the music was a recording, 2) the scenery & special effects were bland and/or non-existent - read: the cannon made this sound "ppffft," 3) the second act, with the dances from around the world - usually some of the most exciting parts of the entire show (i.e. the Russian dance) - lacked the showmanship that is expected. Fortunately, the kids didn't know what they missed. Unfortunately, they now think The Nutcracker is "boring" and the ballet "stinks."

I hate to say it, but I feel conned. This should have been billed the Moscow JUNIOR ballet. Most of the dancers in major roles were quite young and just couldn't or didn't perform at the level we expected from a nationally billed company. The choreography was uninspiring - just not much spark until the very end. This was supposed to be a treat for my daughter and my parents, and instead I spent @$200 for "meh." Wish I'd gone to Joffrey instead. Oh, and the Public Hall stage is stunning, but the rest of it shabby and sad. The ushers were nice, though.

Quality was just ok.....the most annoying part of the performance was those ridiculous animals prancing around in the background of dancers . Very distracting and poorly costumed.

Lose all the local kids! They were distracting and not great. They were adorable but detracted from the professional dancers. Some parts of the ballet looked like a rehearsal. Dancers were off e floor marks and not lined up properly. A man in front of us had a ton of cologne on. It was overpowering and very cloying. It made us cough and sneeze.

The children, age 4 and 6, enjoyed the ballet very well.

The way this event was advertised I genuinely believed I was going to get a spectacular show. The show was subpar. Granted at some points it was entertaining and the talent was there, the quality was not. The venue they decided to have it at was awfully dilapidated and filthy. I would have much rather have seen this at Play House Square. I was torn between seeing this ballet or the Joffrey Ballet’s performance and I went w/ this. I assumed since it was a traveling show there would be more substance. I was sadly disappointed. The show has become very modernized since the last time I saw it as a kid 20+ years ago. For some reason I was under the impression there would have been a live orchestra and there was not. I guess I remember it being a lot more magical as a child than what it actually was. I’m happy to be able to cross it off my bucket list but sad that it did not meet my expectations.

I first became worried about the event when the music began and the orchestra pit was empty. Instead, the music was recorded and played through the audio system. Yes, you can tell and yes, it makes a BIG difference. When the dancing began, it soon became evident that this is not what a professional company should look like. The dancers seemed to be bored and barely put forth any effort. Instead of the seeming of flowing seamlessly from one pose to the next, there were very definite stops and starts between each move. The leg lifts were barely at the appropriate height and there was a definite lack of uniformity in how high or what each person should do. The choreography itself was quite lack luster. There was a general lack of difficulty and complexity to most of the dances. It also failed to appropriately match the mood of the music. When the music was soft, so were the dances, but when the music grew loud and demanded our attention, the dancers were still barely moving through their old poses. Yes, there were parts that stood out and were done very well, but that could be squeezed into 10 minutes of the entire performance. I have to come back to the music yet again. It is not appropriate in any way, shape, or form to charge as much as they did for tickets (the difference between them and the Playhouse Square production was only $10 on most levels, but the Playhouse was sold out) to what you believe to be a professional performance and not have an orchestra perform with the music. As far as the performance is concerned, it would have been good if I was charged no more than $20 for the performance. Anything above that is a waste of your money.

Magical experience and a wonderful showcase of local children!

Very beautiful. this is my first time seeing a ballet and it was done wonderfully.

The Moscow Russian performance was truly fantastic to watch! They incorporated local children into the production and it was beautifully synced. Very little props were used in comparison to other productions that I have seen - they were not missed as there was no need for them. Fabulous performance! I will be going again next year.

The ballet itself was excellent. Fantastic costumes. Perfect dancing, impressive athleticism. The Cleveland music hall leaves a little to be desired. The carpets were filthy. The stairs steep and the floors covered in stains from dropped gum. This place is in need of restoration. The only benefit was it was nice and warm.

Great show, loved the local talent used as part of the various acts - was surprised it did not receive better publicity in Cleveland - few of my friends were even aware of the Shows beining in Cleveland

If you don't have proper facility for the event, don't host it at all. Music Hall is a pitiful delapidated facility... kind of depressing. However, this setting pretty much matched the show itself. Aweful performance! Are those dancers amature? Why do you charge astronomical price for the tickets???? I paid $175.00 a piece; $20.00 would be a generous price for this miserable parody of Nutcracker!!! Not live orchestra?!!! Really???? for this price!!!!! even quality of the recording was pathetic. I saw Nutcracker ballet about 7-10 times in my life. I am Russian, and I brought my American friend to demonstrate immortal masterpiece, hoping that "Russian ballet" would be IT. I was sincerely embarassed. BTW, the some local school productions stage settings and lightings are much better than those. What a shame!

I had always remembered Ballet as an art form of dance AND music. Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker was disappointing. This was my first Nutcracker where there was a tape of the music and no orchestra, very upsetting as the sound system was poor at best. The lack of the orchestra actually took the magic out of this production. The dancers were very good and worked very hard to put on a nice show that lacked even a real tree and warm fireplace to get the mood started. The costumes of the Mouse King and mice were nothing to be remembered as well as the Nutcracker and his army. The land of the sweets had two dancers per country with a sheet animal I could make at home. Once again, the dancers were very good. Seats extremely uncomfortable!! I would not even consider putting my purse in the floor because it was so filthy.

I was so thrilled to see that the RUSSIAN dancers would be coming to town. However there were more non-talented dancers (children and young adults) on the stage than russian dancers. Also, no orchestra, it was all played off a sound system or something. I could have paid the same amount per ticket to go to the other show that night, and would have gotten more for what I paid for. It seemed more like a high-school rendition of the ballet than the world-famous russian dancers.

It was an excellent performance! I would recommend it to everyone.