Tea with the Nutcracker

December 10 · The Willard Intercontinental

BY DONNA SHOR PHOTOS BY IMMANUEL JAYACHANDRAN

THE EVENT: For members of Washington's youngest theater-going set, it was just a hop from the National Theatre and The Washington Ballet's "Nutcracker" to the Willard InterContinental Hotel for a special tea party.
THE SCENE: After the enchantment of the shimmering spectacle, small guests found themselves surrounded by dozens of Nutcrackers at the fun-fi lled session of cocoa and cakes. TWB's imaginative artistic director Septime Webre, by changing the ballet's Old European setting to an 1882 Georgetown drawing room, gave the youngsters (and probably a few parents) some instructive glimpses of famed personalities. Webre transformed the heroic Nutcracker into George Washington, and the arch-enemy Mouse King into hated George III of England. With amusing topical comments and historic local fi gures such as the early-settler Anacostian Indians and the eloquent ex-slave abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, Webre's version is Washington-themed, even to the anachronistic but beautifully blooming DC cherry trees. Choreographers, conductors, performers-Petipa, Balanchine, Baryshnikoff , even Disney and Duke Ellington-all had their way with "The Nutcracker," but Webre's ground breaking vision, while respecting the beloved classic, is wonderfully fresh and innovative.
THE GUESTS: Among those accompanied by off spring (or their off spring's off spring) were Bob Schieff er, Gahl Burt, Ali and George Stephanopoulos, Pat Skantze and Jack Evans.

Ali and Elliott Stephanopoulos	Debbie and Devon Winsor

William Holt, Michael Harreld Jr., Susan and Michael Harreld Sr.	Brooke and April Delaney

Tia Cudahy, Eleanor Walsh, Evie Hardart and Virginia Shore	Anna Parker and Sarah Glover

Shira Klinger and Scarlett Kao	Mary Kate Robbett and Alison Smith

A "Suite" Pair	Christine, Katherine, John and Jack Evans