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Certification
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Sex & Nudity
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- The maid and Marie's mother are played by men in drag.
- No actual sex or nudity, but there is sexual touching. The dance immediately following the Battle with the Mice, a slow adagio usually danced by Clara (Marie in this version) and the Nutcracker Prince, is here danced by Drosselmeyer and his nephew, giving it a subtle homosexual undertone - perhaps intended, perhaps not.
- Some suggestive "bumping and grinding" at the Christmas Party during the "Grandfather Waltz", though the steps involved do not fit the music at all, but no simulated or actual sex. (The "Arabian Dance" is omitted from the production, but almost all of the rest of the score is intact, and played the way Tchaikovsky composed it.)
- Marie and Drosselmeyer's nephew fall in love. There is no Sugar Plum Fairy; as in the Baryshnikov version, Marie performs all of her dances. She and the nephew kiss at the end of the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy", then they French-kiss many times during the "Final Waltz", which is turned into a pas de deux for them. Oddly enough, during the beautiful, slow Adagio of the real Pas de Deux, they do not kiss at all, though this is presumably the most romantic number in the score.
- During the Final Waltz, Drosselmeyer's nephew puts his hand on one of Marie's breasts several times. She also touches him on the chest. The two whisper in each other's ear, but we never learn or figure out what they're saying.
Violence & Gore
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- Fritz shoves Marie violently with his foot during the Christmas party. He is spanked for this, although he and all the other children are played by adults.
- For the first time ever in a "Nutcracker" production, the omitted section of E.T.A. Hoffmann's original story on which the ballet is based is told with some detail. Not even Tchaikovsky's original librettist did this. After Marie throws her slipper at the Mouse King and kills him, the entire set falls on her, presumably injuring her seriously. While she convalesces, Drosselmeyer tells her in pantomime, and we see, also in pantomime, how his nephew was transformed into the Nutcracker and why. The short dances in Act II represent the countries that Drosselmeyer visited after Princess Pirlipat had been vengefully turned into a pig-snouted woman by the Mouse Queen. Drosselmeyer's nephew, the only person who could break the spell, does so and is transformed into a Nutcracker. But Marie makes sure the spell is broken by proclaiming her love for him.
Profanity
Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking
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- Drinking during the Christmas party. Some guests dance while holding a drink in their hand. One woman passes out.
