From the Washington Post:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><B>American Ballet Theatre Gives 'Nutcracker' a Kick</B><P>By Sarah Kaufman, Washington Post<P>In American Ballet Theatre's "Nutcracker," which opened Tuesday night at the Kennedy Center, tastefulness and musicality have been thrown aside to make room for a Christmas tree more suited to Rockefeller Center, a duet between a young girl and a grown man that could have been set in the boudoir, and a couple of muscle-bound unicorns. Sacrifices do have to be made in the name of originality, don't they? <P>Except there is little that's original here (aside from those uniquely incongruous unicorns). ABT Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie has made a patchwork of past "Nutcrackers" as well as other well-known ballets. He followed the same formula in his "Swan Lake," which premiered here last spring: It's the scrapbook version, snapshots of ballets he's seen and admired, cut and pasted together and redecorated.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><B><A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3491-2000Dec13.html" TARGET=_blank>More</A></B>

As negative as this review is, I heard much the same from someone with unimpeachable knowledge and taste - a true disappointment.<P>I sure hope Cinderella, which I have tickets for on Dec. 23rd is better........