NPR Newscast Promotes 'Revolutionary Nutcracker' Ballet in San Francisco

That taxpayer-funded leftist sandbox called National Public Radio promoted the latest work/wreck of “progressive art” on Saturday morning's Weekend Edition. In San Francisco, they're twisting the classic ballet The Nutcracker into a radical-left jeremiad. Anchor Scott Simon announced nonchalantly: "'Tis the season for The Nutcracker. One production in San Francisco is decorated with a grab-bag of liberal political causes. In the Revolutionary Nutcracker Sweetie, the ice caps melt during the Dance of the Snowflakes and Clara is an undocumented Latina maid."

Liberal reporters think liberals aren't at all noteworthy so they get no label. When the media elite announces something has "liberal causes," it's extremely leftist. Reporter April Dembosky interviewed the show's writer and director, Krissy Keefer, without mentioning she ran for Congress against Nancy Pelosi from the far left, demanding the impeachment of Bush in 2006:

KEEFER: We are a political dance company in that we try to make work that is socially relevant, that is responding to the real ideas and real needs of people today in the community.

DEMBOSKY: It all starts on the night of the big party at the home of the richest family in town -- the McGreeds. Guests mingle around the red velvet couch and chair; four "Swan Lake" ballerinas arrive in tutus, then aerobics teachers in workout gear, and ninjas from "The Matrix." There is a narrator who stands under chilly twinkle lights reciting the guest list.

MADISON PARKER (as Narrator): Landlord, lawyers wealthy old prunes, a bevy of brokers, a tribe of tycoons, movie stars, baseball stars, Flash with Cash, I hear even Paris Hilton was trying to crash.

There is a dancer playing Paris Hilton, and a woman playing the Mouse King. There were no ballet traditionalists to assess this dancing propaganda. If the early descriptions were not enough to convince most locals in San Francisco to skip this radical cant and camp, the spectacle continued to unfold:

DEMBOSKY: In this "Nutcracker," there is no dutiful daughter Clara waiting for a Christmas gift from her Uncle Drosselmeyer. There are three Clara's - they are Latina immigrants working in the house of Mr. and Mrs. McGreed.

KEEFER: The first scene we see are the three Clara's getting ready for the party. Mrs. McGreed comes in and she wants their attention right away, and...

STELLA EDELMAN (as Mrs. McGreed): Clara. Clara, can you put some ice in my drink? Thank you, precious. And Clara, can you get me some aspirin? I just have a terrible headache.

KEEFER: And then Drosselmeyer comes home, and he's the McGreeds' oldest son.

DEMBOSKY: Their gay son - in a Che Guevara T-shirt and a pink Mohawk.

KEEFER: And he travels all over world and he brings all these dolls from all over the world. And he gives one of the dolls to Clara and it's a freedom fighter. And that freedom fighter turns into a real person and takes Clara on a journey of self-discovery...

DEMBOSKY: At rehearsals leading up to the show, Keefer directs the performers through each dance of Clara's journey....There's a snow dance where ice caps melt in the background....The Sugar Plum fairy battles the Mouse King of British Petroleum....And Code Pink makes a guest appearance in the triumphant anti-war dance.

Keefer's Dance Brigade devoted their youth ballerinas last May to a production called On The Edge of the World: A People's History of the U.S., devoted to the crackpot theories of radical historian Howard Zinn on how Christopher Columbus ruined the West. It probably will not surprise conservatives that Keefer touts that she has received three Choreographer's Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. So what NPR gave us was a second round of taxpayer-funded promotion for this radical artist who thinks Nancy Pelosi keeps the Democrats in a "moderate lukewarm sinkhole" and Bush threatened the populace with a "fascist state."

The headline at NPR.org played it down as "Left-Leaning 'Nutcracker Suite' Sets a Sour Scene." Yes, like spoiled milk.