Arts

For their first collaboration, director/writer Jennifer Childs and composer/noted Pig Iron-er James Sugg cherry-picked the worst act ever to grace vaudeville.

The Nutcracker has become such a holiday staple, you might be surprised to learn that the original performance in St. Petersburg, Russia, 116 years ago was considered something of a dud.

All the work was collected by one man, Frederick R. McBrien III. He's not a scholar of Japanese art — though he could pass for one — but a man who chooses objects because they appeal to him.

The movement Doug Varone makes is serious and weighty, experimental yet accessible. No one at Annenberg last week needed to know about his honors because his choreography and beautifully trained troupe said it all.

There's so much to enjoy in Lantern's production that I can't imagine anyone going home disappointed. The show is offered up as a family piece, which is rather daring and inspired — the kids at the matinee I saw were eating it up.

"What is beauty?" This has been the prompt for artists-in-residence at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts this year. But now that the program has coaxed Cali-based artist Liz Hickok back to her hometown, she's bringing a different flavor of beauty to the table: Jell-O.

The psychedelic Tuna series is a sharply snarky version of a dream — think Ken Kesey meets Kinky Friedman. And with its two-man tag-team of actors playing each and every of TC's 24 characters, it's a guaranteed trip.