[4] This also causes the choreography for these characters to be simplified, and they largely only appear in the second act of the ballet as observers, except for the re-enactment of the fight with the Mouse King by the Prince.
The first recorded performance was telecast by CBS in 1957 on the TV anthology The Seven Lively Arts; while Balanchine's archives refer to it as complete,[1] it was abridged to 55 minutes long.
[1] The complete Balanchine version was eventually made into a full-length feature film in 1993, and starred Macaulay Culkin in his only screen ballet role, as the Nutcracker, the Prince, and Drosselmeyer's nephew.
[7] In 2011, PBS presented that season's Balanchine Nutcracker as part of their ongoing series Live from Lincoln Center.
Television Movie[11] Television[12] Nilas Martins Brittany Pollack Mary Elizabeth Sell Balanchine adds to Tchaikovsky's score an entr'acte that the composer wrote for Act II of The Sleeping Beauty, but which is now seldom played in productions of that ballet.