'Nutcracker' is given new look for new home

Boston Ballet has talked for months about reinventing ''The Nutcracker" in the cozy confines of the Colonial Theatre. Yesterday, company leaders unveiled a long list of changes the audience will see when the curtain opens on a 45-show run Nov. 26.

There will be new sets, new costumes, and new choreography. The opening and closing scenes of the story will be different. So will Boston Ballet's financial expectations, as it moves from the 3,600-seat Wang Center for the Performing Arts into a theater half its size.

''Yes, Clara, there is a Nutcracker," said Valerie Wilder, Boston Ballet's executive director. ''And that statement a year ago probably had some questions around it."

That's because the Wang Center, the holiday show's home for three decades, replaced ''The Nutcracker" with a touring production it hopes will be more profitable, the ''Radio City Christmas Spectacular." Broadway in Boston eventually signed up ''The Nutcracker," but couldn't offer the 2,600-seat Opera House until 2005 because it's already booked with ''The Lion King." That has left Boston Ballet with the 1,640-seat Colonial.

To make up for a potential $2 million income gap expected with fewer seats to sell, Boston Ballet says it has raised more money than in the past and lowered costs. Meanwhile, artistic director Mikko Nissinen has reworked the production for the Colonial stage, which he estimates is 30 percent smaller than the Wang's.

''It was interesting, it was fascinating, it was a great challenge," Nissinen said of adapting ''The Nutcracker" for the Colonial. ''It will be a little bit more crowded backstage."

The production will still feature about 270 local children, though that's down from last year's total of 340. The story will be the same, of little Clara's dream and the face-off between the Mouse King and the Nutcracker. But Nissinen has changed the choreography and created new scenes to open and close the performance.

For example, this year's Nutcracker production opens in Herr Drosselmeier's workshop, instead of at the Silberhaus family's Christmas party. In the ballet's dream section, the once-friendly dolls Clara turns to will become more menacing than before. And the production will turn the Nutcracker into a Prince. In the past, they have been separate characters played by different dancers.

The look of ''The Nutcracker" will also change. About 40 costumes have been redesigned under Boston Ballet's Charles Heightchew. The company is using, for the first time, an extensive network of computer-programmed sets of moving and LED lights for a different look. And New York-based designer Walt Spangler has created new scenery, taking a streamlined approach that creates more space onstage. Instead of a hot-air balloon whisking Clara and the Prince off to the Kingdom of Sweets, a giant snowflake will ascend near the end of the production. The towering Christmas tree in the party scene, under which the Mouse King battle plays out, will keep growing until only its lower branches can be seen.

''I'm really excited about the sets," said Nissinen. ''Now, the next thing for us to do is take it into the theater and unveil the production."

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com.