My son, Beckett and I were treated today to a great field trip (I chaperoned) to UCLA's Royce Hall to see the Hot Chocolate Nutcracker with 2 third grade classes. We arrived at UCLA and Beckett announced I am going to play basketball here. We waited outside with all the fidgety third graders, along with kids from other schools, excited for the show to start. The Hot Chocolate Nutcracker is Debbie Allen's updated, funky twist on the old holiday tradition. The show was spectacular. Narrated by three wise-cracking rats (Debbie Allen plays one, and the kid who used to play Urkel plays another rat) the show starts out with little Kara, who receives a nutcracker on Christmas Eve, filled with hot chocolate. In the night the nutcracker comes alive, and he is fabulous - leading her on a global journey featuring dances from New Orleans, Russia, Egypt, and the urban streets of the USA. Beckett's favorite number by far was a group of candy cane boys, including the tiniest member of the troop who looks to be about 4 years old, who did breakdancing and hip hop moves. The choreography was fantastic. The show was getting a few kinks out - they are performing for schools today, tomorrow they have their gala, then performing on the 10th for schools. On December 11th they have two shows for the public at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. They ran long - we actually had to drag the kids out before the show ended because we were running so late and did not want to have to pay the City of Santa Monica for overtime for the bus!
My son, Beckett and I were treated today to a great field trip (I chaperoned) to UCLA's Royce Hall to see the Hot Chocolate Nutcracker with 2 third grade classes. We arrived at UCLA and Beckett announced I am going to play basketball here. We waited outside with all the fidgety third graders, along with kids from other schools, excited for the show to start. The Hot Chocolate Nutcracker is Debbie Allen's updated, funky twist on the old holiday tradition. The show was spectacular. Narrated by three wise-cracking rats (Debbie Allen plays one, and the kid who used to play Urkel plays another rat) the show starts out with little Kara, who receives a nutcracker on Christmas Eve, filled with hot chocolate. In the night the nutcracker comes alive, and he is fabulous - leading her on a global journey featuring dances from New Orleans, Russia, Egypt, and the urban streets of the USA. Beckett's favorite number by far was a group of candy cane boys, including the tiniest member of the troop who looks to be about 4 years old, who did breakdancing and hip hop moves. The choreography was fantastic. The show was getting a few kinks out - they are performing for schools today, tomorrow they have their gala, then performing on the 10th for schools. On December 11th they have two shows for the public at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. They ran long - we actually had to drag the kids out before the show ended because we were running so late and did not want to have to pay the City of Santa Monica for overtime for the bus! 
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