Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker in its original form was not a huge success. His distilled abbreviation was. But nothing like its success now. Sometime around the 1970’s it took off and it now is generates huge income for ballet companies around the world. In many cases providing a significant percentage of their annual takings. A natural progression for this is that there are numerous re-imaginings. Romanian pianist Alexandra Dariescu’s reimagining is one of the most creative. It’s a mix of live piano, ballet and state of the art projection. He has also stayed faithful to the original story.
With this rendition of Clara’s journey from Christmas eve to the Kingdom Of the Sweets and the Sugar Plum fairy we see ballerina Désirée Ballantyne engage with the other animated characters of the story. This is achieved through spectacular animation (Art Director and Director of Animation: Adam Smith and Video Design of Yeast Culture). Choreographer of the live ballet was by Jenna Lee. The concept is not new, Gene Kelly did it with Jerry Mouse in Anchors Aweigh in 1945 but that was on screen. Director Nick Hillel and Jenna Lee did well to create movement that, for the most part, integrated a live performance and two dimensional performances. What did not quite 
work was a loss of the physical interaction between Clara and the prince. The interaction meant all the dance lifts had to be removed and so a little of the magic and romance did not manage to translate. Maybe the introduction of a male dancer would have kept that magic alive.
Animation and Video were spectacular but extended scene with just a pianist and projections or some dance moments felt a little long and may push the children’s attention span. Such a reliance on the animation and the scaling back of the physical ballet also started to get dangerously close to watching a beautiful film on stage. It became more about the animation than the ballet. This is a minor issue but one that crossed my mind a few times during the show so is worth bringing up. The use of this cross media work, though, did create some stunning moments. The reveal of the pianist and the ballerina was beautiful.
It is a wonderful concept that inspired the imagination and a great way of introducing children (or re-introducing children) to this classic. However it did leave me wanting more exploration of this concept to create a simply stunning experience.
Louise Mason, Theatre Now
