O.C. DANCE REVIEW : Magic Missing in Lively ‘Nutcracker’

The curtain rises on the Christmas Eve party in the Joffrey Ballet “Nutcracker” and the stage quickly fills with action. Soon, you see something going on in virtually every nook and cranny you can find.

The intent may be to feast the eye, but as seen Wednesday, at the beginning of a five-day run at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the production looked more obsessed with incidents and objects than with touching the heart.

Perhaps this is not the way Robert Joffrey would have left it: Joffrey had initiated the concept of an American “Nutcracker” set in the 1850s and lived to see its premiere in 1987, but failing health forced him to rely upon others for its final execution. George Verdak and Scott Barnard receive credit for the staging. Gerald Arpino, now the company’s artistic director, choreographed the waltzes of the Snowflakes and the Flowers.

Nostalgic appeal is provided by Oliver Smith’s pop-up Christmas card scenery and the Currier and Ives-inspired costumes by John David Ridge. Television puppeteer Kermit Love created imaginative designs for the mice and a not-so-cute giant Mother Ginger figure.

One can admire a certain logic at work. The toys given to the children in Act I prefigure the dancers in the Act II divertissements. Clara (the dewy Mary Barton) populates her dream with figures from her life. Her mother (Deborah Dawn) and father (Douglas Martin) recur as elegant Snow King and Queen; her brother Fritz (Edward Stierle) as the tirelessly bounding Snow Prince.

Moreover, Fritz’s growing anger at the attention paid Clara provides realistic motivation for grabbing the Nutcracker Doll and hurling it across the floor.

But the pacing is relentlessly allegro con brio. The Mouse Battle proves equally busy--and blurred in design. Clara’s climatic contribution comes out of nowhere, and easily can be missed. Arpino’s choreography for the snow scene continues the frantic pace.

Act II merely gets fussy. Drosselmeyer (the authoritative Alexander Grant) does not disappear as usual but remains to stage-manage everything. It’s bad enough that he brings on each dancer with a distinctive flourish, but to cull music from Act I to support his gestures is intrusive, insensitive.

On opening night, the company looked eager and willing, as usual, but somehow nothing magical happened. Tina LeBlanc was a pert, lively Sugar Plum Fairy. Tom Mossbrucker proved a merely likable, fresh-faced Nephew and a bland Nutcracker Prince.

Carl Corry executed the thankless, militaristic duties of the Nutcracker Doll with precision and verve but didn’t get much of a chance to dance until he joined the Russian quartet in Act II.

Beatriz Rodriguez was lithe and vivid as both the Spanish dancer and Columbine (filling in for an ill Meg Gurin). Valerie Madonia and Douglas Martin deftly executed the kitschy Arabian dance. Cynthia Giannini and Stierle were the springy Chinese duo.

But Allan Lewis subjected Tchaikovsky’s wonderful score to speedy, pedestrian, anti-lyrical conducting, and the Pacific Symphony responded with unpolished sounds. The off-key Crystal Cathedral Boychoir was piped in for the Snow Scene.

The Joffrey Ballet dances “The Nutcracker” through Sunday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tickets: $11 to $42. Information: (714) 556-2787.