The Music Hall’s Cancellation of ‘Nutcracker’ Angers Dance Academy

The Music Hall in Portsmouth will not be running "An 1863 Portsmouth Nutcracker" as part of its holiday lineup.

A decision to remove a longstanding holiday tradition from a theater this year is already upsetting people (and it is only March.)

The Music Hall in Portsmouth will not be hosting "An 1863 Portsmouth Nutcracker" on its stage in 2016. According to Great Bay Academy of Dance founder Elisa Gerasin, this news was a shock to the performers who have been putting on the show for 28 years.

Gerasin claims that the move was a "complete 180" from their agreement and that the reasons for the cancellation are not valid. Great Bay Dance Academy is currently searching for another venue for their performance.

A letter from Elisa was posted to her academy's Facebook page on March 21 with a caption "The End of An Era..."

Locals who are not happy about the omission. Some who commented on the post say they are "devastated" and that it "eliminates history from a historic town."

The Music Hall sent this statement today:

We regret that as of the 2016 season, The Music Hall will no longer be the venue for Great Bay Academy of Dance’s (GBAD) performance of the Nutcracker.

We have hosted GBAD’s Nutcracker since their inception seven years ago. This year, due to the growth of our holiday programming starting at Thanksgiving and going through the end of the year, we were forced to make the difficult business decision that we are no longer able to effectively accommodate the technical, rehearsal, and performance demands of the dance studio for this particular production.

During the December 2015 performance season we tried to make the dates and production schedule work with the holiday musical and symphony performances. We recognized for the sake of our organization and our operations crew that the GBAD Nutcracker production schedule was unsustainable.

Please know our door remains open for future performances. We met with the studio owners, Elisa & David Gerasin, in early February and offered some alternatives, including possible dates for another annual student show at a discounted rate in the hopes of helping to create a new, sustainable tradition for Great Bay Academy of Dance, their students, and The Music Hall. We would be happy to have GBAD back at a time when we can give them the attention they deserve.

Important Considerations

1. We’ve enjoyed renting the theater to Great Bay Academy of Dance for their student performance of Nutcracker for the last seven years. Ballet New England (BNE), the more than 25-year old non-profit dance company, performed the Nutcracker at The Music Hall previous to that. BNE folded during the hard times of the Great Recession.

1. The Music Hall’s December production schedule is intense and can no longer accommodate the technical schedule and rehearsals needed for a student production of this size in addition to our other offerings.

    

2. The production puts extensive demands on our team, including A 72-hour straight load-in, and a week-long rehearsal and performance schedule. We could not sufficiently staff given the limits of regionally available crew working holiday productions in the Northeast.

    

3. We have offered alternatives and discounts, and hope GBAD will be back for a recital at another time in the year.