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Hancher Auditorium commissioned Robert Joffrey’s The Nutcracker in 1987, fulfilling Joffrey’s dream of creating a distinctly American Nutcracker. Twenty nine years later, Hancher and the Joffrey Ballet will partner to create an all new Nutcracker, previewing it in the newly built Hancher Auditorium in December, which replaces the building destroyed in the 2008 flood.

Wheeldon, who learned the value of previews when working on Broadway, said he is thrilled that “Nutcracker” will have a modest equivalent when it plays at the University of Iowa’s new Hancher Auditorium, Dec. 1–4.

Preview performances of Wheeldon’s The Nutcracker will take place at The University of Iowa’s brand new Hancher Auditorium, December 1–4, 2016.

Hancher has one more show on the road. On Feb. 12, out in Riverside, the final guest of Hancher’s homeless odyssey will perform: Bobby McFerrin. Hancher could not have made a better choice for this celebratory occasion. McFerrin is the poster child for reinvention: He’s an internationally renowned vocalist who didn’t decide he wanted to sing until his late 20s, and a guest conductor of the world’s most prominent orchestras who didn’t hone that craft until he was about to turn 40. More vital than anything, though, is the way that McFerrin shares Hancher’s passion for its audiences. As a goodbye gift to Hancher on-the-road, this institution whose tagline is “Great Artists. Great Audiences.” will give its audiences an artist who can play them like an instrument—who is famed for teaching those listening what it’s like not just to experience, but to BE music.