The Nutcracker

This was originally a stage production, but rather than taping or filming it in a theatre with a live audience, Baryshnikov chose to have the sets enlarged and taped it in a television studio with no audience.

Marcos Paredes, who dances both the roles of The Mouse King and the drunken guest at the Christmas party, does not receive any screen credit for playing the drunken guest.

The original CBS broadcast presentation of this production featured more narration than the later television broadcasts of it. In the original 1977 version, as the mice appear in their tuxedos, the narrator explains that, in Clara's imagination, they represent the adults at the Christmas party, and in Act II, just before the series of dances at the Kingdom of Sweets, the narrator mentions that Clara "must touch each couple to bring them to life". In the PBS version, all mention of the mice representing the adults was removed, but the narrator still commented that Clara had to bring the couples to life. On the current DVD, and on all PBS telecasts now, all narration stops after the opening scene. The narration was removed without having to cut any of the music or the dancing; both have always remained intact in all of the versions of this "Nutcracker".

Edited into Breakfast with the Arts: The Nutcracker (1997)