My wife and I have been together for almost 14 years and for the entire time we have been together, she has wanted to go see the Nutcracker performed somewhere. I couldn’t tell you why it took us so long, but we finally made it happen by attending a performance at Maryland Hall in Annapolis.
I had never been to Maryland Hall before and honestly, I didn’t know it was tucked away where it was. A big plus for me attending a show there was that it was really close to home and they have big free parking lots so you can avoid the stress of crowded, parallel parking options like other places in Annapolis.
We arrived early and walked around the building and were really intrigued by what we saw. They had rows of classrooms with descriptions outside each of what classes are offered in those rooms. The classes range from dance and ballet to art, glass work, wood work, and more and for all ages. On the next level were exhibit rooms that had different art exhibits you could walk around and see. One was an exhibit of photographs of the civil rights movement. Another was art by specific local artists.
After walking the bottom two floors, we made our way into the theater which is modern and clean and the seating was comfortable giving you a great view of the stage no matter where you sit. I was not all that familiar with the Nutcracker story, but luckily the program had a two-page summary so that you could more easily follow along with what was happening during the ballet. The show lasted two hours with an intermission in the middle. There were plenty of kids in attendance, although they all looked to be mostly 5 or older.
There were a few scenes that the kids seemed to really enjoy. One was when the Rat King and the rat army were on stage; these costumes were great and the scene was very entertaining with rats and soldiers running around everywhere. Another popular act, that also happened to be our favorite, was when they were showing different scenes from around the world with an Arabian dance, Russian dance, Chinese dance, and more. At one point they did the “Mother Ginger” dance where a very tall figure with a very large dress was dancing and the dress was so large that dancers were appearing from underneath it and the kids loved that.
The time flew by and we loved the show and I would like to go back for a play or concert. It looks like they have a pretty varied schedule of events and they still have more showings of the Nutcracker so if you have never been, I can’t recommend it enough … especially if it scores points with your spouse.
