A Nutty Take On A Classic

The holiday time is always a great time for theatre.  We get a lot of cool stuff this time of year, whether it’s the traditional shows like A Christmas Carol or something different like A Christmas Carol Comedy (covered by me twice!)  I started this blog around the holiday time (it will be exactly three years ago tomorrow!).  There’s just so much cool stuff out there.  I love that a lot of it is family friendly, or themed to the time of year, or even traditions found in other countries, like pantos.  All in all, I’d say we get so much great theatre content around this time of year.  It definitely deserves to be recognized.

It’s not just theatre that we see around this time of year.  I’m talking about one thing very specifically…the famous ballet, The Nutcracker.  Every year, ballet companies across the country put on this extremely well known show.  I think pretty much everyone at least knows the story, even if they’ve never seen it.  It’s an important staple in performing arts around the holiday time.  You’ll see ads for different performances of it everywhere.  And yes, I promise I’m about to explain the importance of The Nutcracker in this post.

Earlier this year, I saw Chris Davis perform his one man show, The Presented.  Chris Davis is absolutely hilarious.  The Presented was one of the funniest shows I have ever seen in my life.  And I know I’ve talked plenty about how much I love one man/one woman shows.  They’re extremely difficult, but amazing when executed properly.  Chris Davis knows how to properly execute a one man show.  And before The Presented, came One-Man Nutcracker.  I’m sure you can start to guess what this show entails.  It’s pretty self explanatory.  The thing is…the show is anything but self explanatory.

Honestly, I thought I had some idea of what to expect with this show.  I’ve seen The Nutcracker about ten million times, as my grandparents had a subscription to the Philadelphia Ballet, and that was one that came in every year.  The press pictures of Chris Davis show him in a traditional tutu, in a traditional ballet pose.  It’s definitely pretty great.  I knew going in that this is his fifth year doing this show, so he’s probably got it down pretty well.  I knew The Presented had been real and funny and unique.  I knew a lot going in.  I did not really know what I was getting.

Chris Davis has yet to fail me.  One-Man Nutcracker was a million amazing shows rolled into one.  Davis took the traditional take of The Nutcracker and turned it completely upside down.  Honestly, I was expecting something like him performing all the roles.  This was not what he did.  He definitely did a lot of jumping between roles, but he also told the story of the show.  There were things he presented that I didn’t even remember (or know, perhaps) about this ballet that I thought I knew so well.  He framed it hilariously, setting the stage as a famous ballet dancer who now had two left feet.  Literally.

This show was an absolute delight.  I laughed so hard throughout the entire thing.  Davis pushed himself and his limits, both physically and emotionally.  He gave us so much throughout One-Man Nutcracker, and I was absolutely in awe and enjoyed every second of it.  The whole show was creative, it was something new, it was a different take on something that needed a different take on.  For as much as I love and appreciate the classic presentation of The Nutcracker, I think I needed One-Man Nutcracker.  Honestly, I think the whole world needs One-Man Nutcracker.

The holidays can be hard for a lot of people.  I know I’ve just spent over 600 words talking about how wonderful they are and how wonderful holiday theatre is, but the truth is, it’s a very dark time for some people.  Maybe someone is really lonely.  Maybe someone just lost someone.  Maybe someone has no family to celebrate with.  That, and more, is why we need more shows like One-Man Nutcracker.  I don’t know how someone could walk away from that show not feeling uplifted, and maybe a little bit better.  One-Man Nutcracker gives that to Philly and the Philly area, and it makes me hope that other places have that hidden gem as well.

Comedy is so absolutely important, all the time.  Honestly, comedy movies don’t really do it for me, but comedy theatre definitely does.  There’s something so special about sitting in a theatre with a whole audience around you, laughing through a show.  And yeah, we were all laughing through One-Man Nutcracker.  I don’t know how anyone could sit through that show and not laugh.  And I really hope there are some audience members who need it.  Chris Davis delivered.

As we were entering the theatre, the ushers handed us roses.  They told us we’d be told what to do with them.  That was intriguing.  At the end of the show, Davis prompted us to throw the roses at him on stage.  We all did, of course.  And you know what?  Chris Davis deserved every single rose that was thrown at him.

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