Bob Baker’s “Nutcracker” opened on November 29, 2025 at the historic Sierra Madre Playhouse. It runs through January 4, 2026 which means you have plenty of time to gather your family, friends and any available children and go! This “Nutcracker’s” cast members are all articulated stringed marionettes and all of them bring their special appeal to the stage. Funny, charming, wistful and endearing this will be a show you will remember for a long time to come. Tickets are on sale now.
Bob Baker was a well-known prop master for films when he and his partner Alton Wood created what would become Los Angeles’s foremost puppet theater in 1963. His theater, now located in Highland Park, still attracts thousands of children as well as adults to see live puppet theater every year. A perfect place for parties and school functions where everyone can forget their troubles and get lost in this magical world.
Bob Baker’s Marionette Theatre – The Nutcracker – Photo by Winona Bechtle.
Red velvet curtains with a framework of fabric gives definition and formality to the stage while ushers dressed in holiday red, cheerfully help with seating. Lively background music fills the room with carousel tunes and Christmas carols. As the house goes dark a cartoon orchestra appears on an upstage screen as a puppet conductor takes the baton, thus the show begins. Here are the regal parents of Clara and her mischievous little brother Fred who lead us into the story of the Nutcracker. The fantasy of this story allows for Bob Baker who created this show in 1969, to bring in characters from the traditional version of the Nutcracker, the Prince, the Mouse King and more along with many surprise characters including a shaggy blue dog, long lashed cupcakes and dayglo worms who do a ridiculously funny routine ending with special word created from their stringy bodies. Every character is manipulated by the accomplished puppeteers who had been our ushers in red.
Bob Baker’s Marionette Theatre – The Nutcracker – Photo by Winona Bechtle.
As Clara and her Prince wander through this fairyland the puppeteers work tirelessly bringing on one puppet after another. Miraculously the puppets take our full focus as the handlers, though clearly visible, recede into the background. Each routine is appropriately short given the general age of the children. There is of course, the battle of the Mouse King with mice swarming down the aisles onto the stage ending in the transformation of the Nutcracker into the handsome Prince. “Waltz of the Snowflakes” trips along as large white fluffy clouds float like cotton candy overhead. Adorable sprites whirl, twirl and leap through “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies” and the “Land of Candy” is just exactly that. Dancing flutes have eyes and feet of course and spinning pots of lovely flowers fill the stage for “Waltz of the Flowers” just as it should. Surprises abound throughout with the sudden appearance of jazzy ice skaters or a hilarious rock and roll band which had the audience both young and old laughing loudly. Each segment brings its’ own charm though sometimes the story gets left behind.
The finale has poignance as Clara is awakened in her bed by her beautiful Fairy Godmother and is sent to the land of “Winkin, Blinkin and Nod,” sailing away until she perches on the Christmas tree that has appeared center stage and the show comes to an end.
Bob Baker’s Marionette Theatre – The Nutcracker – Photo by Winona Bechtle.
Is this a perfect show, probably not. Much of the interstitial music is dated, the voice overs are sometimes hard to decipher and the voices for Clara and Fred are clearly adult. Some puppets might need a little rehab and the tree at the end was less magical than it might be. The finale as well, feels truncated when a little more time and perhaps a character parade would go far to create a true sense of nostalgia as the glorious Tchaikovsky score takes us to the final bow.
Still, this is a show I enjoyed immensely in spite of these small issues and the audience clearly did too as was evidenced by a lot of laughing and hardy applause. And just to add to that after the show you can meet the characters and get a free ice cream, what could be better than that? Grab a friend and some kids and go if you can it’s a nice way to say, “Happy Holidays.”
Bob Baker’s Marionette Theatre – The Nutcracker – Photo by Winona Bechtle.
The talented puppeteers were; Diego Aceves, Ginger Duncan, Elena Humpherys, Danielle McPhaul, Brisa Sisk and Sophie Wilkes. Backstage was Matt Swain who must be working overtime keeping the puppets organized and ready for their entrance. Birdie Boyce ran Spotlights.
Original Lighting Design was by Daisy Hernandez and Jeanne Valleroy with Art Direction by Bob Breen.
For more information and to purchase tickets to Bob Baker’s Nutcracker at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, please visit their website. Tickets are $25.
Written by Tam Warner for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Bob Baker’s Nutcracker – Photo by Winona Bechtle.
