Billy Strayhorn-Duke Ellington's jazz 'Nutcracker' to premiere in Pittsburgh

On Dec. 1, 1938, Pittsburgh resident and jazz composer Billy Strayhorn met the legendary Duke Ellington backstage after a show at what was then the Stanley Theater.

Their musical personalities meshed, and Strayhorn’s composition “Take the ‘A’ Train” eventually became the Ellington band’s theme song. The duo also collaborated on a jazz re-casting of Tchaikovsky’s classic “Nutcracker Suite,” taking the Russian composer’s classical work and translating its movements into the bop and swing that characterized the era’s jazz music.

“It came out in 1960. I can remember it even though I was a young child,” said A. Alyce Claerbaut, president of the Billy Strayhorn Songs corporation and an executive producer for “Sugar Hill: The Ellington/Strayhorn ‘Nutcracker,’” which will premiere in Pittsburgh this October.

And while the original music came out in the ’60s, the Oct. 19-30 run at the Benedum Center — what became of the former Stanley Theater — will be its first staging as a fully choreographed musical with libretto.

It will be directed by Emmy Award winner Joshua Bergasse, with choreography by Jade Hale-Christofi.

“Sugar Hill” tells the story of a young girl named Lena, who sneaks into a jazz club, and finds herself aboard a magical version of Strayhorn’s titular “’A’ Train,” which carries her through a whirlwind fantasy through the jazz-steeped world of New York City’s Harlem neighborhood.

“We started noticing that every year, there were more and more orchestras performing the music,” Claerbaut said. “Over the years, it kind of became this great secret.”

Like a great many large-scale productions coming out in 2022, “Sugar Hill” was initially meant to debut earlier, but was delayed due to the covid-19 pandemic.

“A couple years ago, Alyce contacted me about folks from New York City coming to town, wanting to meet with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and the Benedum with an idea about the show,” said Martin Ashby, a local music coordinator for the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild. “I helped put together some meetings and immediately fell in love with the project. We’ve done a lot with her company at MCG, so it was really a natural fit.”

Ashby helped organize the 15-piece jazz orchestra — including nine Pittsburgh musicians — that will perform the show’s music, which includes more than just jazz renditions of familiar “Nutcracker” songs.

“There’s the ‘Sugar Plum Fairy’ and well-known things like that, but there are a lot of other pieces in the production, like a piano song, ‘Tonk,’ that is amazing,” Ashby said. “There’s plenty of ‘Nutcracker,’ but there’s also a lot of Strayhorn and Ellington in the production that makes it very powerful from a choreography and staging perspective.”

The show band includes music educators from Duquesne, Slippery Rock and West Virginia universities.

“It really speaks to the level of musicianship that has gone into the show,” Ashby said.

Claerbaut said she’s proud to help shine a light on the cultural and musical legacy of jazz music in Pittsburgh.

“I’m based in Chicago now, and even though someone like Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines gained a lot of fame while he lived in Chicago, a lot of people don’t realize he grew up in Pittsburgh,” she said. “It’s got such an amazing cultural history with jazz music.”

“Sugar Hill” will premiere Oct. 19-30 at the Benedum Center, before heading to New York City Center for a run that starts Nov. 15.

Tickets ($51-$101) are on sale at TrustArts.org. Enter “sugar hill strayhorn” into the search box at the top of the page.