The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago’s indescribably lovely “The Nutcracker” is back for a second year at the Rosemont Theatre, and ballet fans, holiday fans, kiddie fans and people fans all would be well-advised to see it.
The stage pictures alone are pure confection. Oliver Smith’s sets and John David Ridge’s costumes managye every pastel in the rainbow, creating a 19th-Century parlor, a land of cottony snow and an exotic battlefield for giant mice. The American setting, instead of Victorian England, not only tosses the U.S. into the ballet’s U.N. sampler, but results in such wonderful touches as a Virginia reel and an escape by a hot-air balloon.
But for all its wonderful trappings, the real star of this “Nutcracker” is the dance, buoyed by the late Robert Joffrey’s shrewd instincts as balletic showman. The last great production of his life, staged by George Verdak and Scott Barnard after Alexandra Fedorova’s 1940 version for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, “The Nutcracker” blends Russian tradition and the 20th-Century stamp of Joffrey’s partner, Gerald Arpino, into a paradoxically seamless patchwork quilt.
The children are used as if veteran professionals, coloring the parlor scene with frisky antics and engaging in the mice-ly battle with expert timing, whirling in and out of the adult dancers as part of an ingenious design. In a new touch, 8-year-old Stephen Hiatt-Leonard, though bound to a cane wheelchair, joins enthusiastically in the fun at the Christmas party, a tasteful, touching reminder of the ballet’s generous holiday spirit.
For the most part, the adult dancers, too, prove better practiced and prepared this year. The hard-working ensemble members are engaging partygoers, high-leaping snowflakes, and silky lovers in Arpino’s trademark “Waltz of the Flowers,” a work full of detailed, pinpoint choreography and luscious, short-lived lifts.
Jennifer Goodman is delightful and almost heartbreaking as Clara, while Calvin Kitten’s Fritz steals the first act, his wicked misbehavior redeemed by transformation into a high-leaping, dazzlingly stylish snowflake.
Lorena Feijoo’s precise, kittenish Sugar Plum Fairy delivers the tricky footwork that makes her moments a fitting climax. As Nutcracker Prince, Steve Beirens is competent, but not yet commanding.
Newcomer Nanci Crowley, capably partnered by Ernesto Quenedit, makes for a strikingly tall, stately and accurate Snow Queen. Throughout, Adam Sklute’s eerie, sometimes dark Drosselmeyer is a haunting, marvelously stagy emcee and magician.
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“The Nutcracker”
When: Through Nov. 30
Where: Rosemont Theatre, 5400 N. River Rd.
Phone: 312-902-1500
