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“The Bright Steam,” introduced in 1935 in Stalin’s Russia, quickly fell under a dark cloud and vanished from the stage. But there was life left in this playful tale of a farm collective sent into a tizzy by visiting big-city artists. Shostakovich’s score endured and Alexei Ratmansky envisioned the ballet anew for the Bolshoi Ballet in 2003. Now American Ballet Theatre, on a visit to L.A., is performing the piece at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. At Thursday’s opening, Jared Matthews portrayed the Tractor Driver. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
American Ballet Theatre performs “The Bright Stream” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion July 14-17, 2011. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
At Thursday’s opening, Gillian Murphy portrayed the Ballerina who helps set a farm collective aflutter. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
A scene from “The Bright Stream,” as performed by American Ballet Theatre at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Identities are disguised in a comic scene involving Gillian Murphy, left, as the Ballerina at Thursday’s performance and Paloma Herrera as forgotten wife Zina. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Roman Zhurbin cavorts with a gramophone at Thursday’s American Ballet Theatre performance of “The Bright Stream.” (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Ballet partners Cory Stearns and Gillian Murphy portrayed -- guess what? -- ballet partners at Thursday’s opening performance of “The Bright Stream” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Cory Stearns’ Ballet Dancer engages in a bit of cross-dressing in the comic ballet “The Bright Stream.” (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Paloma Herrera’s forgotten Zina makes contact with Marcelo Gomes as her momentarily astray husband, Pyotr, at Thursday’s opening performance of “The Bright Stream.” (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
The men’s corps goes Russian in “The Bright Stream.” (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
In this scene involving Cory Stearns as the cross-dressing Ballet Dancer and Victor Barbee as the Old Dacha Dweller, a viewer might be forgiven for momentarily confusing “The Bright Stream” with “Some Like It Hot.” American Ballet Theatre’s visit continues through July 17, 2011. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
