An immersive, interactive Nutcracker in swing time
What is Club Drosselmeyer? Sure it’s an immersive theater show, an immersive theater puzzle hunt with actors, vaudeville routines, cocktails, fabulous outfits and good friends but it’s so much more! It’s also an innovative, interactive show with codes and mysteries, excellent stories, original musical arrangements… and sugarplums.
So don your fedora, dust off your dancing shoes and join us at Club Drosselmeyer!
Be sure to join our mailing list to be the first to hear about this year’s show!
“Club Drosselmeyer is the immersive, interactive holiday show you've been waiting for!”
“Club Drosselmeyer offers up a buffet of immersive possibilities, and it’s up to each attendee to decide what balance of dancing, puzzling, and character interactions they want to chase to fill their plates for the night.”
- ARGnet
who will you meet at Club Drosselmeyer?
Dr. Clara Stahlbaum is an expert in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. She was known as the youngest ever PhD grad from MIT but now she works with her uncle at Drosselmeyer Industries as lead scientist for a promising new technology, Project Nutcracker.
Herr Drosselmeyer is a scientist and inventor, a magician and a man of mystery. Herr Drosselmeyer is the head of Drosselmeyer Industries and has been tasked with inventing new machines that might be able to turn the tide in the war in Europe.
Fritz Stahlbaum wants to use the family’s name to do some good for the world. Affable, charming and eager to please, Fritz didn’t seem to get the “scientist” gene that runs in his family. He’s taken the lead as the MC and host at Club Drosselmeyer but clubs are also a great place to gamble.
Rhett “the Rat” King is one of the most creative “entrepreneurial” minds of Boston. Last year, after the unfortunate demise of his dear uncle Rattibus, he's had the opportunity to take over the family business on is own and boy does he have some ideas.
Ginger Lamarr, star of stage and screen, will lend her voice and glamour to our live 8-piece swing band. She’s back from her home in London to see her old friend and schoolmate, Herr Drosselmeyer but there’s always something dramatic happening in the club.
Dr. Vera Kandilova-Kane, formerly a disgruntled employee of Drosselmeyer Industries has found a new home in the 1940 tech startup, King Technologies as their chief scientist. Thanks to her experience at the former lab with Project Nutcracker, she has a new project.
FAQs
What is Club Drosselmeyer?
Club Drosselmeyer is an immersive, interactive show set in a 1940’s nightclub. You can grab a drink, watch the floor shows, listen to our live 8 piece swing band and original swing-time Nutcracker arrangements and of course, dance the night away. If you'd like to interact, you can speak with various characters throughout the club to figure out more about the story and help them solve puzzles and complete tasks. What you and fellow audience members do will change how the story plays out at the end of the evening!
Where is Club Drosselmeyer?
Club Drosselmeyer is located at 1950 Mass Ave in Cambridge at the Cambridge Masonic Temple, a beautiful historic building right near Porter Square. Not only will we be completely transforming their spacious ballroom, we will also be using other parts of the building throughout your adventure.
We are a short walk from the Porter Square T Station. There is some metered parking in the area, Cambridge resident parking, and a paid lot behind Lesley University right down the street behind 1815 Massachusetts Ave.
How long is the show?
Doors open at 7:00 and the show begins around 7:30. It will run approximately three hours and end around 10:30. There’s lots to see and do, so you’ll need to decide where to spend your time and which characters you want to help!
Do I need to interact to enjoy the show?
You're welcome to just enjoy the show: hanging out in a 1940’s nightclub is pretty fun! If you want to solve some puzzles without interacting, perhaps team up with somebody who would rather interact than solve puzzles! You definitely will not be dragged out to interact in front of the full audience, all interactions are personal, like chatting with someone at a bar.
What are the different ticket options like?
Standing Room tickets ($60) are great if you don't mind being on your feet or are planning on being up and about for the evening. Unassigned seats are available along the perimeter of the space. We have three tiers of reserved seating: Standard Tables ($75), Premium Tables ($85) and VIP Tables ($105). These are tiered based on position in the room, with the higher tiers having better sight lines and being closer to the action for scenes and floor shows.
The VIP Tables are for our club’s special patrons. These tickets will include unique interactions, a few treats, and some surprises!
Table sizes vary between 2, 4, and 6 seats: the tables with fewer seats will be smaller (the seating chart doesn’t properly illustrate this). You don’t need to buy out a whole table, but will likely end up making some new friends if you don’t!
The black boxes on the seating chart represent the club’s twelve palm trees. You can see them in the photos above! They’re fairly narrow, so they shouldn’t obstruct your view significantly.
Do I have to dress up? What should I wear?
We highly recommend dressing up: it is fun to have an excuse to dress your best and if everybody dresses up, it helps with the immersion! If you don't know how to dress like it is 1940, just dress to impress! Check out these 1940's style guides for men and women if you'd like to dress appropriately for the time period!
Who would enjoy this show? Do I need to be a dancer/puzzler/younger/older/introvert/extrovert?
We've specifically designed the show to be enjoyable for all different engagement levels. You can interact as much or as little as you'd like. Some of the pathways are more puzzle-y than others, and there will be "waiters" around the club to help you find a way to enjoy yourself, or help you out if you get stuck! Dancing is entirely optional. Folks of all different ages from 10 to 93 have come to Club Drosselmeyer and had a great time!
I’ve been before! Is the show different this year?
If you came last year, the show is completely different! All new story! All new puzzles! Of course, it still involves the same Nutcracker characters you know and love, but this year it is 1940 and the situation has changed.
If you came in 2017, our prior iteration of 1940, the overall plot will be the same (because it was such a fun year!), but we will definitely have fresh surprises for you!
What is your COVID policy?
Since the show involves a lot of talking, actors will be unmasked so you can hear what they’re saying. For the audience, masks will be optional and we will not be checking vaccination status.
To mitigate against the risk of many tickets being cancelled last-minute due to illness, tickets are non-refundable and we are instead offering Refund Protection (for a small fee) through our ticketing service, Ludus. This will cover your refund in the event of illness (and a number of other cases).
News & Updates
January 29th, 2024
We are happy to report that we had yet another absolutely fabulous season of Club Drosselmeyer. Robots battled. Scientists feuded. Refugees escaped. Frenchwomen flew. It was magic. But doesn’t it always feel a little bit like magic?
As per usual, we’d love to hear what you thought of the show and if you have any recommendations for us for next year. (After all, we’re already plotting 1941!) It’s important to us to get good feedback from our DrosselFam, especially to gauge how our puzzles are doing, if you had enough space, if you felt like you had an easy enough time navigating the tickets and the game and getting a hold of us– the whole nine yards. Also we’d love to hear things like how you found out about Club Drosselmeyer, especially if it was your first time to the show.
So please if you have a moment, fill out our DrosselSurvey to tell us how the show was for you. It really helps us a lot!
A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who came and played and danced and gave us all the best kinds of trouble. We look forward to it so much every year, it’s hard to believe we’ve been at it for eight whole years now! So have some new years rest. Keep in touch and we will see you again next year at Club Drosselmeyer!
