The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 44

THE BOSTON GLOBE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30. 1984 45 g-t 1 jL 1 ffrrr 'isNl jPs Living 55 Comics 58,59 if TV Radio 60 FILM NOTES 'Nutcracker' magic on stage, at box office W1 fr- slide projections to create special effects, such as walls that seem to melt into thin air. You won't find any probing psychological treatments around Boston. Boston Ballet founder E. Virginia Wiliams was famous for her disapproval of these: "I want a 'Nutcracker' for children," she used to say.

The big differences among local versions are in scale and budget. A "Nutcracker" like the one the Walnut Hill School offers in its own Natick auditorium Dec. 8-9 is done inexpensively, with student dancers and costumes borrowed or sewn by the school's dean for the arts, Sydelle Gomberg. The Walnut Hill performances, staged by Samuel Kurk-jian, the onetime Boston teacher and choreographer who now works in New York, are primarily a showcase for the young talent at this arts boarding school, which has sent dancers on to such illustrious companies as the New York City Ballet. Tickets for the Walnut Hill production are $3 ($2 for students.) Tickets for the Boston Ballet's extravaganza, at the other end of the scale, run $13 to $31.

The Boston Ballet's "Nutcrack- is nr Melanie Griffith and Craig Wasson in "Body Double." How two directors confront 'vioporn' Area 'Nutcracker' productions Boston Ballet's Stephanie Moy in er" reflects the company's tradition in the person of a veteran dancer like Laura Young, who has been with the troupe since its inception and has danced most of the female roles in the Christmas ballet. Young herself is acting as North Atlantic Ballet "Nutcracker" Kennedy Middle School, Lexington street, Waltham. Telephone 891-3740, 899-1683. Dec. 8, 7 p.m.

Snow date Dec. 9. Tickets $5, students and elders $3, children under 12 $1. Sponsored by Waltham Arts Council. ULowell Foundation "Nutcracker" Durgin Arts Center, Lowell campus.

Telephone 459-0350. Dec. 9, 4 p.m. Tickets $10, $12.50. Connecticut Ballet production.

"Nutcracker" at Salem State College Main Stage Auditorium, Lafayette street, Salem campus Telephone 745-0556, ext. 205. Dec. 7, 8 p.m.; Dec. 8, 2 p.m.

and 8 p.m. Tickets children under 15, $7 (matinee only). Connecticut Ballet production. Festival Ballet of Rhode Island "Nutcracker" Providence (R.I.) Performing Arts Center. Telephone 401-353-1129.

Dec. 7-8, 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 8-9, 2:30 p.m. Tickets discounts for students and elders. Walnut Hill School "Nutcracker" Highland street, Natick.

Tele phone 653-4312. Dec. 8-9, 8 p.m. Admission $3, students $2. By Christine Temin Globe Staff Even if you're an early riser, chances are that while you're prying your eyes open Sunday morning thedancers of the Boston Ballet will have already been at their plies for a while.

Dancers don't like to get up early, as a rule. But Sunday it will be necessary because the Ballet is performing at the undancerly hour of noon, in, of all places, the middle of the Chestnut Hill Mall. Following the mall performance, the company schleps over to the John F. Kennedy Library for another appearance at 2:30 p.m. The dancers are sacrificing their Sunday in a cause that symbolizes the American Christmas marriage of sentiment and commerce promoting "The Nutcracker." They'll perform excerpts of the Christmas ballet, designed to whet public appetite for the complete production the company offers at the Wang Center for the Performing Arts Thursday through Dec.

30. There are currently more than 220 productions of the Christmas ballet in the United States, according to a Dancemagazine estimate. This month's Dancemagazine also offers a handy chart that accounts for the epidemic at a glance: "Nutcracker" brings in anywhere from 23-65 percent of the ticket income of America's biggest ballet troupes. (The production provides 55 percent of the Boston Ballet's ticket revenue.) Some companies have tried alternative holiday ballets "The Match Girl" or "The Littlest Angel" but nothing has equaled "Nutcracker's" box-office magic. Not all prouctions of "Nutcracker" are alike, of course; people do tinker with the ballet, just as they fiddle with classics from "Hamlet" to Wagner's "Ring." In some versions of "Nutcracker," the story is a metaphor for a young girl's sexual awakening, and the little Clara of Act One becomes the adult Sugar Plum Fairy in Act Two.

In other versions, the Sugar Plum is merely part of Clara's childish dream of a land filled with sweets. The Hartford Ballet's version, offered Dec.M423 in Hartford's Bushnell Memorial 'Hall, even incorporates film and "Magic! -Joyce Kulhawik, WBZ-Tv OayO Callahan VILLAGE HEROES Next Move Theatre 423-5572 Teletron 720-3434 "Imaginative. -Frank Dolan, WEEI call 267-5600 Boston Shakespeare Co. Theatre 52 St. Botolph St.

(next to Copley Place) Boston Ballet "Nutcracker" Wang Center, 268 Tremont Boston. Telephone 542-3600, 800-223-0120, 542-3945. Dec. 6-30. Evening performances Tuesday-Sunday 7:30 p.m., except Dec.

25 and 30; matinees Saturday-Sunday plus Dec. 27 at 2 p.m.; no matinee Dec. 30. Tickets dress circle $31. North Atlantic Ballet "Nutcracker" Strand Theater, 543 Columbia Dorchester.

Telephone 282-8000. Nov. 30, 7 p.m.; Dec. 1 at 2 at 7 p.m. Tickets $7.50, students and elders $5.

Greater Mllford Ballet Association "Nutcracker" Milford High School, West Fountain street. Telephone 473-2105. Nov. 30-Dec. 1, 8 p.m.; Dec.

2, 3 p.m. Tickets $5.25. Laura Young, choreographer. With Marlborough Symphony Orchestra. "Nutcracker" Excerpts John F.

Kennedy Library, off Morrissey boulevard, Columbia Point, Dorchester. Telephone 929-4558. Dec. 2, 2:30 p.m.. Free with Museum entry, fee: adults $1.50, under 16 free.

Performed by Boston Ballet. its each season. They seem more than ordinarily provocative in the cases of "Body Double" and "Crimes of Passion," though, because both De Palma and Russell have been and still are regarded as serious filmmakers. When "Friday the 13th" spinoffs go after coed's with carving knives, they seem beneath serious discussion. But when there's even a possibility that a De Palnfa or a Russell may be sliding into a genre that might be termed upscale vioporn, a little discussion seems in order.

The curious thing about "Body Double" is how divorced that electric-drill murder scene seems from the rest of the film, which seems less violent against women than against the memory of Alfred Hitchcock. "Body Double" seems a series of lush images slapped together into a crude Hitchcock travesty as it plunges an unemployed actor into a murder plot. Far from seething with violence, or anything else except pessimism FILM NOTES, Page 50 December 13, 14 15 Handel Haydn Society Thomas Dunn, Artistic Director Presents Handel's 8:00 PM at Symphony Hall Tickets $10. $15. $22.

$28 CHARGIT: 542-3600 THE MOST TALKED ABOUT PLAY IN YEARS! "WONDERFUL!" Kevin Kelly, Globe Teletron (617) 720-3434 Group Sales 426-6444 Ticketron (IEEE XBoWmtarie is a past "Nutcracker." choreographer for a "Nutcracker" that's as small in scale as Walnut Hill's: She's staged a version for the Greater Milford Ballet Association, a student group that is accompanied by the Marlborough Symphony Orchestra. Performances are tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. at Milford High School. Given "Nutcracker's" ubiquity, it may come as a surprise that it was first produced in this country only 40 years ago, by the San Francisco Ballet.

George Balan-chine's 1954 New York City Ballet production which premiered, not around Christmas, but in February set a high standard, with dancers including Maria Tallchief and Tanaquil Le Clercq in the original. Balanchine was apparently as sentimental about "Nutcracker" as many of the rest of us. In his youth, he had danced a number of "Nutcracker" roles, including the Mouse King and the Candy Cane, with the Maryinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, where the ballet had made its debut in 1892. Balanchine wanted to recreate the Russian tradition of incorporating children into large-scale classics and so included a host of students from his School of American Ballet in his "Nutcracker." Page 50 serve vou: Artichoke- By Jay Carr Globe Staff Women, especially a few I've spoken to, are steaming over two current movies they feel violate women's rights Brian De Pal-ma's "Body Double" and Ken Russell's "Crimes of Passion." Both contain scenes in which sex and violence merge in ugly ways.

In "Body Double," a woman is mur- dered by having a three-foot electric drill driven through her stomach. In "Crimes of Passion," a woman who denies her sexuality by day turns herself into a flam- boyant hooker by night, playing domination games that involve, among other things, a crazed preacher and a steel dildo honed to lethal sharpness. What the women understandably object to is the demeaning phallic dominance at the core of each of these images. Such scenes are not unique to contemporary movies. But nothing much is made of them in the dozens of cheap slasher movies that surface CALENDAR Friday, Nov.

30 "Torch Song Trilogy" Three one-act plays by Harvey Fierstein exploring attitudes toward homosexuality, Shubert Theater, 265 Tremont st, Boston. 8 p.m. ASIAN AMERICAN Int'l Film Festival Prog. 1, 1130, 7:30 p.m. "Mississippi Triangle" Reception will follow film.

Prog. 2, 121, 4 p.m. "First Look" "Cruisin' J-Town" Prog. 3, 121, 7:30 p.m. "Wataridori" "The Departure" "Nisei Soldier" Prog.

4, 122, 4 p.m. "After Birth" "Only Language She Knows" "East to West" at Mass. College of Art, 621 Huntington Ave. Spurt by Isiai HwriHi Buoirn Werkshap WARRFN VAHk Yoiino Man With a Utrn ir.nnAj featuring the Vickt von Eus TrioNovember 30. AL COHN and JQECOHN "A Jazz NewAork Post.

Superb Tenor player together witfc his son on guitar (Concord Records). Featured with the Vlcki von tps i no. uecemDen Howard Jcmnson Hotel, 55 Comm Ave Boston Open Tuas- Fri. from 4:30 PM Sat from 7 PM Free VIP parking 267-3100 WARVEYFIERSTEIiS TONY AWARD WINNER BEST PLAY 1983 FINAL 3 PERFSI TONIGHT 8.TCMW2&8 TELECHARGE: (617) 236-030oi1 mm mm XIX If If stuffed mushrooms. Imaginative pastas like our rich Four Cheese Linguini and our Chicken Spinach Fettuccini.

Tvo-fisted burgers and sides of Onion Fries. Light, freshly prepared, completely satisfying entrees for the calorie conscious. Many premium wines by the glass. Stacks of sandwiches. Thick, tender steaks.

Fine seafood with the most delicate And here's what well mood to mingle. flavors. Mouth-watering desserts, featuring our famous Chocolate Fondue. Good spirits at the bar that match your J. B.

Winbene. A new restaurant and bar with new ideas for lunch, dinner, drinks and Sunday brunch. 16th North Street, 723-2322. Across from Faneuil Hall Flower Market TELETRON: (617) 720-3434 Group Sales: (617) 426 Colonial Theatre 6444 Ticketron 426-9366 Groups: 426-6444 Ticketron Shubert Theatre 26a Tremont 426-4620.