The Nutcracker - A Review

We just got home from my favorite holiday tradition (well, outside of infamous Cookie Swap) -- The Nutcracker.  We had perfect seats.  PERFECT.  Center front row of the Mezzanine.  Unobstructed and elevated view.  Win.  And this was one of my dates.  Another win.

Let me preface the following with this.  I love ballet.  I quit eleven million years ago and nothing breathes life into my soul more than watching a beautiful ballerina, or hearing pointe shoes strike the stage.

This marks the second year of the 'refreshed' version of Boston Ballet's Nutcracker.  We skipped last year as we went in Nevada (which, frankly, was weirder than weird ... but it's Vegas so that's to be expected, no?).

Last year Boston Ballet redesigned the entire show, from costumes to sets to choreography.

Gone are the bright colored, petti-coated, pantalooned 'friend' costumes.  Here to stay are  drab 'period correct' dresses.  And buns.  Y'all, there were no ringlets.  What is the point of being Clara's friend in the Nutcracker if you can't wear sponge rollers to school?

It is becoming increasingly clear to me that I will never get past what Nutcracker is supposed to be...and that is the Civic Ballet of San Luis Obispo's Nutcracker.  It is perfection.  Where the soldiers dance to the soldier music and rag dolls dance to rag doll music (concepts with which Mikko of the Boston Ballet is unfamiliar).

Missing were two of the most magical parts of any Nutcracker worth its weight, the tree that grows (no, really, it has to) and Clara being whisked into the air at the end of the 2nd act.  In this new version Sugar Plum and the Nutcracker get pulled away by a horse and carriage.

In the middle of the fight scene there was a life-sized rabbit and a gingerbread man.  It was confusing.  And weird.  And may have made me think I was hallucinating.

BUT!  I have some positives!  The mice were more hilarious than ever.  Their new costumes rock.  The Snow scene was magical.  The Snow Queen's new costume sparkles like nothing else and the Corps was perfectly synchronized.  It made me fall in love with Snow all over again.  The new costumes for Waltz of the Flowers were equally lovely - fresh, light...floral.  5 gold stars.

Perhaps the biggest win of the whole night was Arden's epiphany - that dancers are so strong and synchronized.  It was a big aha moment that they don't just flit around the stage like little fairies as she has so snarkily demonstrated in the past.

In the end, I'm glad we went.  I always am.  It's a special night for my little family.

But from now on we are flying back to SLO for the real Nutcracker every December.

Nutcracker 1988

Civic Ballet of San Luis Obispo

Cal Poly Theater

25 years ago.
Good LORD I'm old.