The famous play of The Nutcracker Suite begain life in 1816 [?] by the German writer E.T.A. Hoffman in 1816. The Play was [?] "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" and it was a tale of an unhappy girl [?] Marie whose only love is a nutcracker doll. The Play was [?] in 1845 by [?] French novelist Alexandre Dumas, who made the play more suitable for children. In 1891 the cheerier version of the ballet was [?] as the basis of a Russian ballet to be [?] by Piotrllyich Tchaikovsky and [?] by Marius Petitpa and Lev Ivanov. The ballet opened in St. Petersburg on December 17, 1892. The ballet is the tale of a girl named Clara who is [?] a nutcracker doll for Christmas by her godfather, Drosselmaier. That night she falls asleep and is [?] by an attack of mice [?] by the Mouse King, who wishes to take her away to his kingdom. She is [?] by soldiers of the Nutcracker who, as a prince, takes her to his land, a country full of sugarplums and waltzing flowers. She awakens the next morning with only the doll and memories of her Christmas adventure.