CREATED/FOUNDED by Joyce Stahl in 2005. Produced every other year in Key West Florida – A uniquely crafted holiday production inspired by Key West’s tropical environment and rich cultural history.

Of all of the holiday traditions, surely one of the world’s most delightful is The Nutcracker. Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet debuted in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1892.
Since then there have been an estimated 11 million performances of this classic tale of a young girl’s magical journey to the land of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
International audiences have not only adopted the story as their own, they have adapted it-tailoring the setting, characters and costumes to local cultural tastes and traditions.
A sumptuous, artful theatrical experience wrapped as a perfect holiday gift for the Southernmost City- it’s very own NUTCRACKER. The Key West productions comes complete with chickens, roosters, sea fans anemones, and yes, even a conch shell. This is one of the largest productions to ever play on a Key West Stage!

Set to the enchanting music of Tchaikovsky, the production opens upon a prominent turn-of-the century landmark Key West property at sunset on Christmas Eve. A local family, their children Clara and Fritz and guests celebrate the holiday, including Clara’s Godfather and her nephew. Given a Conch Nutcracker by her godfather, Clara later falls asleep with him in her arms, protecting him from the chickens who have wandered in from the garden. Her dream sequence is flooded with Key West Imagery; toy sailors engage in battle to protect her from the Rooster King and his cohorts, the Conch Nutcracker Saved by Clara’s slipper becomes a Navy Ensign, who then leads Clara to the Salt Ponds as dancers take flight in the starlit night as snowy egrets. The lst Act ends with the egrets ushering Clara and her escort aboard a sailing skiff for a journey over the Cuban Sea.

A coral reef sets the scene for the second act. The “Sea Star” and “Swordfish Cavilier” with their “Angelfish” attendants welcome Clara and here Navy Ensign to this underwater kingdom as they descend in their French diving bell. Among the various divertissement performed to entertain Clara and the Navy Ensign are King Neptune and his shrimp (the local tumblers), colorful reef fish, the Spanish Due from the sunken “Atocha: and the Tao Kwan Do Chinese Fish sparring with their “chopsticks.” As the waltz of the Sea Anemonies” comes to a close, the “Swordfish Cavilier” leads the exquisite Sea Star to dance the traditional pas de deux. In the end, Clara wakes up in her bed at home with the Nutcracker in her arms.