{"id":87894,"date":"2025-12-18T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/?p=87894"},"modified":"2025-12-18T09:42:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T17:42:52","slug":"theater-news-holiday-magic-continues-on-stages-near-you-this-weekend-including-the-long-beach-nutcracker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/newsletters\/theater-news-holiday-magic-continues-on-stages-near-you-this-weekend-including-the-long-beach-nutcracker","title":{"rendered":"Theater News: Holiday magic continues on stages near you this weekend, including ‘The Long Beach Nutcracker’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome to Theater News, a regular column by longtime reviewer Anita W. Harris. Look for it most Thursdays. Or\u00a0sign up<\/a>\u00a0for our Eat See Do newsletter to get it in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re like me, you\u2019ve barely made a dent in your gift list. But as the countdown to Christmas begins, you can still get into the holiday spirit through local theaters that\u2019ll have you merrily tying bows in no time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The iconic and meaningful play \u201c<\/strong>A Christmas Carol<\/strong><\/a>\u201d<\/strong> is continuing in its final weekend at Long Beach Playhouse<\/a>, as is the new musical play \u201c<\/strong>Mrs. Christmas<\/strong><\/a>\u201d<\/strong> at the Aurora Theater<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For holiday music shows, you can catch \u201cA Broadway Holiday with David Burnham\u201d<\/strong> at the Carpenter Center<\/a> tonight, Dec. 18, and two this weekend at nearby Cerritos Center<\/a> \u2014  \u201cDave Koz & Friends Christmas Tour 2025\u201d<\/strong> on Friday and Saturday and the \u201cLos Angeles Symphony Christmas Concert\u201d<\/strong> on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And like icing on a Christmas cake, \u201cThe Long Beach Nutcracker\u201d<\/strong> is performing in its final weekend at the Terrace Theater, bringing true holiday magic to the stage for young and older folk alike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Link<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Directed by Long Beach Ballet artistic director David Wilcox, this version of the holiday classic pulls out all the stops \u2014 pyrotechnics, a flying sleigh and angels, an actual live horse, a full orchestra and a 250-member cast that includes possibly every small child in Long Beach \u2014 to create an unmatched theatrical experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story itself is literally dreamlike, beginning in young Clara\u2019s home as her parents throw a Christmas party and her eccentric uncle gifts her a nutcracker doll. As she drifts off to sleep, however, the nutcracker transforms to princely life just in time to fight scary, sword-wielding mice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nutcracker Prince soon takes Clara on a fabulous journey amid snowflakes and a world tour of dances facilitated by the Sugar Plum Fairy. All this is told through Tchaikovsky\u2019s well-known score and ballet dancing, anchored this weekend by Vitor Luiz of the San Francisco Ballet as the prince and Tara Ghassemieh as the Sugar Plum Fairy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A scene from “The Long Beach Nutcracker” at the Terrace Theater. Photo by Katie Ging.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now in its 43rd<\/sup> year, \u201cThe Long Beach Nutcracker\u201d is one of only two productions in the country that uses two harps in the orchestra to ensure the performance sounds the way Tchaikovsky intended. But director Wilcox says the production is not just for people who like ballet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can hate ballet and you\u2019ll still like this production,\u201d he said. \u201cI like using the beauty of the classical art form of ballet, which has taken 500 years to develop to the level that it is today, to form a production that\u2019s enticing and exciting. It has pyrotechnics, it has magic \u2014 it\u2019s got everything I can think of to make it thrilling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plaza in front of the Terrace Theater itself is aglow in holiday lights, with spiked eggnog and other treats inside the theater to warm you up \u2014 a delightful gift for the whole family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Long Beach Nutcracker\u201d continues Dec. 19 and 20 at the Terrace Theater, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, with shows Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in person at the box office or by visiting <\/em>LongBeachNutcracker.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now in its 43rd year, \u201cThe Long Beach Nutcracker\u201d is one of only two productions in the country that uses two harps in the orchestra to ensure the performance sounds the way Tchaikovsky intended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":87895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32198],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32310],"class_list":["post-87894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletters","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87897,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87894\/revisions\/87897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87894"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=87894"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=87894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}