The Sleeping Beauty (Joffrey Ballet)

About This Event

The Joffrey closes its 2026–27 season with the North American premiere of Christopher Wheeldon's The Sleeping Beauty, set to the full Tchaikovsky score with sets and costumes by Jerome Kaplan. It's the company's second big European import of the season, after opening with the Chicago premiere of John Neumeier's Liliom back in September — artistic director Ashley Wheater has framed the pairing as proof the Joffrey can mount ambitious, large-scale European productions on its own stage rather than relying on borrowed touring sets.

Wheeldon is a familiar name to Chicago audiences already: his reimagined version of The Nutcracker, set at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, has been the Joffrey's own holiday production since 2016, replacing Robert Joffrey's original. This Sleeping Beauty is a different kind of undertaking — a full-length story ballet rather than a holiday perennial, closing out the season in May rather than opening it in December.

Worth knowing: this is still several months out and ticket pricing wasn't published as of this writing — check joffrey.org as the May run gets closer.