There is a meme circulating on the internet that says, “Be like the Kennedy Expressway and never stop working on yourself.” That stretch of Interstate 90 was under construction when I moved to the Chicago area in 1989. And it still is.
I thought about that while watching the opening night of the Joffrey Ballet’s “Nutcracker” this year. For many families, the ballet is an annual tradition and signals the official start of the holiday season. Kids, decked out in their holiday finest, ooh-ed and aah-ed, some processing down the Lyric Opera House’s red carpeted aisles to get a peek into the orchestra pit. I was that kid. In some ways, I still am. Holidays, commence!
“The Nutcracker” runs four weekends at the Lyric, closing on Dec. 28.
The theater’s festive vibe paralleled the pure magic unfolding onstage Friday, for what felt like a caffeinated “Nutcracker” from music director Scott Speck’s first downbeat. Tempos were brisk. The dancers were on their legs. Transitions between scenes were fast and super smooth. That kind of ease with, and mastery of, what is a very challenging “Nutcracker” for everyone involved only comes with the time, money and heart Joffrey has invested in it, now for a decade.
You see, like the Kennedy, this “Nutcracker” has never stopped improving itself. The Joffrey has fiddled with costumes and sets, tweaked some of the choreography and reworked the party scene’s musical arrangements. This year, there’s an overhauled transition from the battle scene — in which life-sized mice and toy soldiers battle under the Christmas tree, like you do — to the snow scene, seamlessly and far more beautifully bridging those two magical realms that unfold in a young girl’s unfathomable dream. And the pièce de résistance: What was essentially a giant cardboard cutout of the Statue of the Republic sitting as the centerpiece of the ballet’s second act has been replaced by an actual statue, giving dimensionality and shimmer to what had been a flat and rather blah setting.
Launched in 2016, this “Nutcracker” replaced Robert Joffrey’s beloved version, which the company retired after three decades of performances. It is Tony Award-winning choreographer Christopher Wheeldon’s first and only “Nutcracker,” custom-crafted for our ballet company and our city with a vision executed by the Joffrey team, plus a pack of high-profile designers and Caldecott-winning author Brian Selznick.
Selznick moves the plot from a Gilded Age mansion to Jackson Park, for the story of an immigrant family whose single mother (on opening night, Gayeon Jung) is a sculptor living among working-class laborers. It’s Christmas Eve 1892, the winter before the first Chicago World’s Fair is to open. Magic in the making.
A Daniel Burnham-type figure dubbed the Great Impresario of the Fair (on Friday danced by Stefan Gonçalvez) attends a merry holiday party in the family home of Marie (Amanda Assucena), brother Franz (Alan Ruesch) and their mother (Jung). Joined by apprentice Peter (Hyuma Kiyosawa), the Impresario comes bearing gifts (and sacks of coins, because he’s their boss, after all), including a special nutcracker doll for Marie. When mischievous Franz breaks the doll, we get glimpses of a burgeoning love story — not between Peter and Marie, as is often the case in “The Nutcracker,” but the Impresario and Marie’s mother. Fast-forward to the end of the ballet, and all the sweets, and treats, and magic and mystery of Marie’s dreams are small potatoes compared to a loving family eating breakfast together in their cozy, happy home. Money can buy you a World’s Fair, but it can’t buy happiness.
It’s taken me a while to warm up to this “Nutcracker.” The original ballet, choreographed in 1892 by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, used the E.T.A. Hoffmann fairy tale about a magical nutcracker doll as a mere container to house audience-pleasing displays of technical excellence and exploit Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s magnificent score. Wheeldon endeavored to make it make sense, framing the second act divertissements as various global pavilions of the 1893 World’s Fair, complete with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West extravaganza, which took place at the same time just outside the fairgrounds.
In the process, Wheeldon kind of got in his own way, crafting intricate choreography imbued with purpose and meaning that has, for years, looked clunky and awkward.
Until it didn’t. Jung doubles as the gold-trimmed Sugar Plum figure, which in this ballet is a living, dancing version of the Statue of the Republic. Her pretzel-like pas de deux with Gonçalvez near the ballet’s conclusion extrapolates the turns and folds of the statue’s molded, shimmering clay. Neither Jung nor Gonçalvez has performed those roles on opening night before; they and others found the beating heart underneath the steps that’s likely been there all along. Other examples: The snow corps has eased into a less frenetic pace, making the scene’s shivering hands and architectural craftsmanship less of an intellectual exercise then in years past. Precise angularities and quick shifts of weight central to the Spanish quartet and Venetian trio are now second nature to these expert dancers. As Buffalo Bill, Valentino Moneglia Zamora even nails his lasso twirling, like the rodeo star he is.
Lauren Warnecke is a freelance critic.
Review: “The Nutcracker” (4 stars)
When: Through Dec. 28
Where: Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive
Running time: 2 hours, with one intermission
Tickets: $63-$232 at 312-386-8905 and joffrey.org
