Divamensch

Richard and I saw *The Hard Nut* at BAM on 12/16.  This was my third time seeing it: I saw it in 2010 with Karen, then again last year with Peter and Valerie, and now this year with Richard.  I said in my review last year that I love the piece so much, I wished that BAM would do it more often.  Maybe not every year, but every two or three years.  Well here they are, doing it a year later, and I saw it and loved it to death!  Listen to me, BAM: I WILL see it every year.  Bring it back every year.  Please.

 

It's Mark Morris's version of *The Nutcracker,* and it's respectful of the source but also irreverent and zany and adorable.  I won't repeat what I said last year, you can read it yourself.  My comparison between a moment in "The Waltz of the Snowflakes" and a moment in "Turkey Lurkey Time" is especially insightful:

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The new wrinkle for this year: maybe it's because I had my husband sitting next to me, but the whole show seemed so much more GAY.  Like the number between the eyepatch uncle and his younger self, it always reminded me of the parallel number in *Billy Elliot,* when Billy is dancing with his adult self.  But this time I noticed the way the two men were looking at each other longingly and grasping each other meaningfully, and it made me think of Bruce Wayne and his young ward Dick Grayson.  And I hope I don't have to tell you what was really going on there.

 

LOVE, Chris