Royal Ballet: The Nutcracker, review – A scrumptious Christmas cracker

The Nutcracker is about the spectacle and the sparkle, says Lyndsey Winship, and the Royal Ballet's production is an escapist treat
Sweet touch: Dancers of the Royal Ballet as snowflakes
Tristram Kenton
Lyndsey Winship14 December 2015

Here comes Christmas, with its weepy John Lewis adverts and unwanted secret Santa gifts, and, of course, its Nutcrackers — no Yuletide would be complete without one. The Nutcracker is a flawed ballet in many ways, the two acts essentially divorced from each other, with the central character, Clara, then sidelined to watch a series of unconnected divertissements. Plus there’s the fact that the star dancers don’t even appear until almost the end of the ballet.

But that’s enough bah humbug. The power of tradition and the brilliance of Tchaikovsky’s tuneful score have made this ballet a perennial, and if you’re going to see a Nutcracker, the Royal Ballet’s production by Peter Wright (originally staged in 1984) perfectly fits the bill for a festive, family show.

The setting is classic, the 19th-century Biedermeier era of E T A Hoffmann’s original story elegantly evoked by designer Julia Trevelyan Oman, and Wright sticks closely to the scenario of Petipa and Ivanov’s 1892 ballet. Wright’s choreography is fittingly classical, all about beauty and proportion and perfect placing of everything just where it should be.

Wright’s key feature, and the glue holding everything together, is Drosselmeyer (the excellent Gary Avis), who in this telling is a magician with lots of actual tricks up his sleeve. He conjures all manner of fantastical characters that keep the first act a box of constant delights: harlequins, toy soldiers, lions, a gaggle of mice and some gorgeous gilded angels. It’s a triumph of the costume, set and wig departments as much as anything else, with the enormous expanding Christmas tree dwarfing tiny Francesca Hayward as Clara, and dancing snowflakes waltzing through falling snow in a kingdom of frosted sugar. It’s all so sparkly and delicious, like Swarovski gatecrashed a party at Fortnum & Mason.

The best Christmas shows in London

1/18

Character-wise, the role of Clara doesn’t ask much more than being sweet and pretty, but Hayward dances airily and easily, breezing through the steps with a lovely sense of line. The fractured nature of the plot means lots of opportunities for soloists and lesser-ranked members of the company. Londoner Yasmine Naghdi shines as the Rose Fairy, no doubt inspiring the ballerina dreams of plenty of little girls in the audience.

The Sugar Plum Fairy and her prince finally appear — the night I watched it was Lauren Cuthbertson with Federico Bonelli as a late replacement for Matthew Golding. Cuthbertson has an amazing ability to project a graciousness that’s positively queenly — you would bow down and kiss her perfectly pointed feet — but their pas de deux isn’t quite as zinging tonight as you’d hope. There are numerous different casts during the run, and word on the street is that the couple to catch are Steven McRae and the Royal’s new guest artist, Ukrainian dancer, Iana Salenko (performing December 14). Having said that, this is truly a company show, about the spectacle and the sparkle as much as individual performances.

There are just a couple of niggles: the switch back to reality at the end doesn’t quite come off, and one tradition that really needs to go is that Chinese dance. The pointing fingers and goofy grins are surely borderline offensive. But that aside, this is a scrumptious, escapist treat.

Until January 14, Royal Opera House (020 7304 4000, roh.org.uk)

Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in