The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago will bring its production of “The Nutcracker” to the Auditorium Theatre next season–the acclaimed version’s first downtown presentation.
Robert Joffrey’s Currier and Ives-styled American production of the ballet, which played at the Rosemont Theatre the past two years, is scheduled Nov. 27-Dec. 13 as part of a three-year arrangement with the Auditorium.
There is an option for two years after that.
“We’re thrilled,” says Robert Alpaugh, the company’s executive director. “Rosemont was very good for us. . . . But with all the theater redevelopment that the city and mayor are promoting, clearly the Loop is becoming the area’s theater district.”
The Joffrey is already set to begin a separate engagement Wednesday at the Auditorium. But the scheduling of “The Nutcracker” is important for the troupe, which relocated here in 1996.
That scheduling is partly the result of the shutdown of the Chicago Tribune Charities’ “Nutcracker” at Arie Crown Theater last year and the Rosemont’s success with the Rockettes and their Radio City Music Hall holiday spectacular, which is expected to return this year.
