She’s then carried away via gondola (one of many impressive effects) to a land of enchantment. He is this production’s Uncle Drosselmeyer, presiding over the workmen’s Christmas party, where the immigrant tradesmen celebrate with their native folk dances, and giving Marie her thrilling gift: A wooden nutcracker that is quickly broken by the envious Franz.Įxhausted and overstimulated, Marie falls asleep after the party and in her dreams witnesses a war between brave nutcracker soldiers and creepy warlike mice. Marie and her younger brother Franz (Oliver Reeve Libke) encounter the commanding figure of the Great Impresario (a perfectly cast Dylan Gutierrez), a caped sorcerer loosely based on architect Daniel Burnham, who conjures the fair’s awesome White City out of the swampy Lake Michigan shoreline. The story’s protagonist Marie (referred to as Clara in other versions and danced here by the elfin Yumi Kanazawa) is the daughter of a sculptress designing the gigantic “Columbia” statue that will dominate and symbolize the fair. Exquisite artistry is wedded to brilliant, fleshed-out concept, and the result is an evening of polished and occasionally jaw-dropping perfection that will amaze and delight even the most jaded of “Nutcracker” veterans.Ĭhoreographer Christopher Wheeldon-who together with author and illustrator Brian Selznick created this strikingly original take on the ballet in 2016 for the Joffrey’s then-home at the Auditorium Theatre-has successfully localized the familiar story, shifting the setting from Old World drawing room to the cottage of a worker involved in constructing the great 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. In its current version of the work, the Joffrey Ballet performs perhaps an even greater miracle, which is to turn this holiday chestnut into something not just fresh and new, but also relevant and provocative. Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” is a work of dreamlike wonder, an ultra-Romantic vision of life made art. Dylan Gutierrez and Yumi Kanazawa in the Joffrey Ballet’s “The Nutcracker”/Photo: Todd Rosenberg Photography
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