PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The mice, the soldiers, the sugar plum fairy — the characters in the holiday classic “The Nutcracker” are iconic. And Chris Davis is going to play every role himself.
Davis, a solo theater artist, is putting his own spin on an old story. He will perform his “One-Man Nutcracker” from Dec. 20 to Jan. 2, 2023, at Theatre Exile, located at Reed and South 13th streets.
When he saw the original “Nutcracker” for the first time, it had a profound impact on him.
“I dated a ballet dancer and went to see ‘The Nutcracker’ every year, but in doing so, I fell in love with the story,” he recalled. “I thought, well what if I try to take this, condense it down to one hour, and try to create this whole world and sort of a challenge to myself.”
So, he did. He took adult ballet classes and formatted the show around a solo act. Davis’ rendition takes a more comical approach, forcing him to use his imagination to solve bigger problems on the stage.
“You have everything except it’s shortened a lot,” he said. “That brings out comedy in it.
“The show itself has a lot of childlike wonder and magic to it and it’s ultimately really fun for families and for the audience.”
Tickets can be purchased online.
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