When we were given the chance to review the Max and Ruby’s Nutcracker we knew that our children would enjoy it.
In fact we were so certain that instead of telling them what we were doing we never ever did actually tell them we were taking them to it. What we did instead was park and walk around to the front door, where my four year old clued in to where we were going and why.
I have been in the Capitol Theatre here in Moncton many years ago. In fact I was there before the restoration, when they were using it to show movies. I helped a number of parents of kids I helped out with take a bunch of kids to see the Little Mermaid in it’s initial release. What I really love about the Capitol is the seating. While there is a fair number of seats, it is not so large as to ever put you that far away from the show and in reality the seats only rise just enough to get you above the heads of the people in front of you, meaning that you never are really that high above the stage, even if you are in the balcony.
The show itself was an adapted version of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite done in a way to interest children in the show and ballet portions while still holding a fair bit of the integrity of the original show.
In overall hindsight it is clear my children totally loved the show, our autistic son went into a huge “happy version” stimming session when it was over. The look on his face was absolutely incredible.
The fact is with anything like this we did have some worries about what his interest level in it would be. Autism being what it is, you never know what is going to get his attention. Our solution to figure out just how well it would go over with him was to use YouTube on our TV and give him a taste of what the show was like. He seemed thrilled by what we saw, most videos simply showed the most famous portion of the original show, The dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy done for Ruby however that was enough to get a really good glimpse of how he felt about the whole show.
We were not wrong. Not only was the show excellent but all of the kids totally loved it.
Nicole says
I try my hardest not to tell my kids where we are going and try to surprise them!
Vancouver Muggle says
Your post made me quite curious about this version of the Nutcracker.
June S. says
(Max And Ruby: Nutcracker Was Enjoyed By Everyone) This looks like it was a fun time for the whole family to enjoy together. Our family watch Max & Ruby all the time on TV.
Christina G. says
I still remember when my father took us to see The Nutcracker. So fun!
Tammy Woodall says
I enjoyed this version of “The Nutcracker.” Thanks for sharing.
Lindsey says
Super cool post! Great video too!