Rap Legend Kurtis Blow Bounces Back from Heart Transplant to Lead ‘Hip Hop Nutcracker’ Ballet Tour

Rap legend Kurtis Blow performing live in Germany. Photo Credit: Francelada

Rap legend Kurtis Blow is officially set to embark on a 31-city national tour of The Hip Hop Nutcracker following his December of 2020 heart transplant.

Organizers unveiled the schedule for the seventh season of The Hip Hop Nutcracker – in which “Tchaikovsky’s 129-year-old ballet is reimagined as a holiday dance spectacle” – via a formal release today. Kicking off with a November 6th performance in San Diego, California, this newest leg of the production will see the 61-year-old Kurtis Blow (full name Kurtis Walker) reprise his role as MC, continuing to open each show.

The New York City-born “The Breaks” artist in mid-December of last year took to social media to celebrate his successful heart transplant, and the upcoming Hip Hop Nutcracker performances will bring him and the show’s cast to fans in Washington, Colorado, Oklahoma, Georgia, New York, and several other states. With Jennifer Weber serving as both choreographer and director, this newest run is expected to wrap on Sunday, January 2nd, 2022, in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Addressing The Hip Hop Nutcracker’s 2021 schedule, Kurtis Blow said: “Through the isolation of the pandemic and for me, personally, the gift of receiving a new heart, it is time to hope again. And the season of hope is Christmas.

“It’s incredible for me to meet fans, and their kids, and their kids’ kids who love hip hop music. It reminds me of how The Nutcracker brings people of all ages together too. I hope everyone makes holiday memories for a lifetime when they come to our show,” finished the licensed minister.

After the unprecedented disruption ushered in by the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated lockdown measures last year, a number of high-profile shows are scheduled to debut or return in 2021’s second half.

Like The Hip Hop Nutcracker, the Britney Spears musical Once Upon a One More Time is also set to begin showing this fall, with a late-November premiere booked for Washington, D.C. And following several delays, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella began previewing late last month.

A vocal critic of continued lockdown requirements and large-gathering restrictions, Webber scheduled a “Freedom Day performance” of Cinderella for next Monday, July 19th, when Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to roll back remaining performance-size limits, social-distancing rules, and similar requirements.

Stateside, notwithstanding another (ongoing) cluster of Springsteen on Broadway performances, an array of prominent musicals – from Hamilton to Wicked – will return to Broadway beginning in September.