A Hard Nut to Crack

The Nutcracker, in hundreds of versions, is the most performed ballet in the world. The holiday season in this country alone brings forth more than 1,000 performances every year. The latest and most unlikely interpretation is by Mark Morris, in collaboration with comic-book artist Charles Burns. Morris calls it The Hard Nut, and he has set it in the age of rock 'n' roll. Here the Stahlbaums are a loudmouthed middle-class family who live in what is probably not the best section of town. Their guests arrive at the Christmas Eve party got up in bell-bottom pants, platform shoes, and polyester jumpsuits in lurid shades of disinfectant green and tomato-juice red. When it's time to light the Yule log, Herr Stahlbaum flicks on the VCR and watches a videotape of logs burning in a fireplace. The Hard Nut is like a Simpsons episode with a Tchaikovsky sound track. And watch out for that streetwise maid: she looks like someone who just ran over from the set of In Living Color. Take a good look at Frau Stahlbaum. Is she, ah, ah...oh, never mind. About half the Snowflakes are men, and they're dressed just like the women, in short, fluffy silver-andwhite tutus with halter tops. But, as Morris says, the Waltz of the Snowflakes is about nature, and "nature means everyone, women and men." Well, all right.

The Hard Nut will be broadcast in New York on PBS's Great Performances series on December 16 at 8:30 P.M. The Mark Morris Dance Group will also present The Hard Nut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music from December 11 through 27. Call the box office now. It will probably be a hard ticket.

DAVID DANIEL