Nutcrackered Out: On Ballet’s Most Popular Work

By Victoria Looseleaf

Love it or loathe it, The Nutcracker, that E.T.A. Hoffmann story set to Tchaikovsky’s glorious score, is here to stay. We are, fortunately, in the former category, though our Nutcracker threshold seems to get lower with each passing year, cuz we’ve probably seen too many versions. Hello, Harlem Nutcracker, an oddity that put the crack [pipe] literally into the story. What about that Indian bharata natyam rendering (or was it kathak), that we sat through for three plus hours ? And spare us, puhleeze, from any more amatuer Nuts, where oodles of children cavort around the stage so that parents can ooh and ahh over their terpsichorean tykes. Whatever!

Still, there are several versions we do adore, including Mark MorrisThe Hard Nut (above), which updates the scenario to the Mad Men era, replete with mucho drinking and drag ballerinos (men on pointe). Too bad the production has never been mounted in Southern California – bah! (Click here to read our latest Morris piece – one of many we’ve penned on the fabulous choreographer – this one including a link to our KUSC interview with him from earlier this year).

Then there are these tellings we fancy: George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker for New York City Ballet, which we’ve had the pleasure of seeing on several occasions while visiting the Big Apple; and Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker, which was at Royce Hall a few years back (click here to read our 2004 L.A. Times story).

On the local level, there have been too many Nuts to mention, though Deborah Brockus offered a mash-up earlier this decade (click here to read our LAT story on that), which succeeded on paper but not, er, on foot. And, of course, Los Angeles Ballet kick-started its troupe back in 2006 with their own homegrown production that originally featured a live orchestra (but no longer does; click here for our LAT story that centered on a delightful partnership from that season, one that is also no longer; and click here for more recent coverage of LAB, now in its sixth season. We, of course, continue to wish them well.)

We’ve also covered San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker (at left), whose dancing bear never fails to delight (click here for our, gulp, 1996 LAT review of that), and the list goes on. So, when The Joffrey Ballet sashayed back to the Music Center over the weekend, we decided to revisit the 1987 production by founders Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino (both deceased, below), which was, in turn, based on the 1940 Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo’s mounting.

In a, well, nutshell: For us, the thrill was gone. (We wonder if it was ever there for the inane woman sitting next to us who was – get this – playing Solitaire on her iPhone during the first scene, until we – shocked and appalled – asked her kindly to please power down, shook our head in disbelief and finally…hissed, until she deigned to turn off the damn device. WTF!) BTB…back to the Joffrey:  Sure, the 42 dancers – and some 70 children – gave it their all, with the live music (L.A. Opera orchestra under the baton of Joffrey music director Scott Speck) certainly a big help. So, too, were the costumes frothy, while the snow scene was requisitely, um, snowy. The addition of the National Children’s Chorus singing their offstage hearts out, provided an aural boost, as well.

But the troupe is now filled with very young dancers, most of whom we don’t know and are not yet mature artists. (We loved The Joffrey of yore, even the troupe from earlier in the decade, The Joffrey of Robert Altman’s underrated, The Company (2003, below), but whaddya gonna do. Time passes, dancers get injured, move on, age, with prima ballerinas not necessarily having to vie for Odette/Odile glory to play out the perennial dancer’s story. Okay, we just hadda get in our Black Swan coverage, so click here for that.)

We also didn’t care for the double casting: Fabrice Calmels and April Daly (seen on Saturday evening), were the prim and proper Mr. and Mrs. Stahlbaum, before becoming the pas de deuxing Snow Queen and Snow King (pity the backstage dressers). In truth, it seemed a bit Sybil-like to us, with Daly also dancing Pansy in the Waltz of the Flowers and Calmels serving as a support mechanism for his Arabian cuppa coffee.

Which brings us to Act II, still a showcase for dancers to strut their stuff in a series of divertissements featuring duets, quartets and all of those tutu-clad blossoms. The afore-mentioned Arabian, with Kara Zimmerman and Calmels (hello, again, at right), proved Cirque du Soleil-like, as Zimmerman executed one back-bend too many and a gasp-inducing six o’clock leg extension. She’s gorgeously thin, naturally, but the number felt forced and neo-cheesy. (Click here for our recent coverage of Cirque’s Iris.)

On the plus side, Victoria Jaiani and Temur Suluashvili brought elegance and verve to their grand pas as the SPF (Sugar Plum Fairy) and her Nutcracker Prince, though Suluashvili was a bit wobbly in his landings that were less buttery than margarine-like.

An aside: Any mention of a Sugar Plum Fairy now brings to mind the New York Times’ Alastair Macaulay, who last year wrote that NYCB’s Jenifer Ringer (right), looked like “she’d eaten one sugar plum too many.” That caused a veritable firestorm in the dance community, prompting us to write a piece for the LAT on body fascism; click here to read our take on that weighy topic.

Another plus: the towering Mother Ginger (puppeteer Francis Kane), with a slew of irrepressible kiddies bopping in and out from under that gigantic skirt. (Kermit Love was the creative designer for MG, the mice and Clara’s horse. Click here to read our Dance Teacher Magazine story on the fabulous Love, who also designed Sesame Street’s Big Bird.)

Oliver Smith’s sets have generally retained their holiday luster, though the rising magical Christmas tree somehow does not look as magical. Tchaikovsky’s score, on the other hand, never gets old (though we wish it wouldn’t blast from every conceivable source beginning in November, from the car wash and TV commercials to malls, both indoors and out). And speaking of Tchaikovsky, we’re still mourning the loss of the mega-talented director Ken Russell, who died last week (click here for our memoriam coverage), with one of his movies a biopic of Tchaikovsky, The Music Lovers, starring Richard Chamberlain.

But great art never dies, including The Nutcracker, the dance world’s biggest cash cow. So go find a production that suits you (and your budget), to see why it’s a holiday favorite. You might even find a prince to kiss, or at least to ogle. We certainly have!

P.S. This just in: Erstwhile dancer, now A-list choreographer/movie helmer Adam Shankman (Hairspray and the upcoming Rock of Ages), will be directing a new feature film version of The Nutcracker. The hitch: Shankman says there won’t be any pointe shoes – or much dancing at all – as he’s going back to the original Hoffmann story (The Nutcracker and the Mouse King) for this so-called “action-adventure-fairy tale.” As for Tchaikovsky’s music, who knows. That said, read about it here, but we at The Report aren’t exactly holding our breath, though if he cast the very princely Ryan Gosling

 

About Victoria Looseleaf

Victoria Looseleaf is an award winning arts journalist and regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times, KUSC-FM radio, Dance Magazine, Performances Magazine and other outlets. She roams the world covering dance, music, theater, film, food and architecture. Have pen - and iPad - will travel! Her latest book, "Isn't It Rich? A Novella In Verse" is now available on Amazon. Thank you for reading! Cheers...
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