DANCE REVIEW : S.F. Ballet ‘Nutcracker’ in Costa Mesa

Some of the luster has dimmed in the San Francisco Ballet production of the “Nutcracker,” which opened a nine-day engagement (through Sunday) at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Friday.

The spectacle elements--sets, costumes and scenic transformations--remained impressive. Snow persuasively cascades down the front of a wintry street scene. Drosselmeyer magically produces life-sized dolls out of empty packages, and the mind remains baffled.

The pear-shaped mice costumes delight. The traveling panorama of the Snow Scene enchants. The Kingdom of the Sweets looks sumptuous and the bees tucked about it deftly allude to the beehive in the finale of the original 1892 St. Petersburg production.

But strong as these visual and magical elements are, they could not camouflage some major weaknesses. The choreography looked increasingly thin and certain dramatic choices were misjudged.

Of course, Center officials pulled off a hat-trick of their own in even getting the production. They had been abruptly left in the lurch when financial troubles forced American Ballet Theatre in September to cancel a much anticipated premiere of a new production.

On short notice, they managed to book the San Francisco Ballet, which was the first U.S. company to mount a complete “Nutcracker” way back in 1944.

This version--the fourth by the company--was created in 1986 and incorporates Lew Christensen’s earlier (1967) choreography and other choreography by Willam Christensen and SFB artistic director Helgi Tomasson. Jose Varona designed the handsome Biedermeier costumes and sets.

This is definitely a version for kids, who dominate much of the music and the action in the first scene, waving their toys, grabbing after the Nutcracker doll and generally participating in everything.

For those not wholly enchanted by such goings on, however, the opening act, even with two brief cuts in the score, proved a long haul. When was the real dancing going to begin?

When it arrived in the Snow Scene, it was a letdown. Instead of Lev Ivanov’s original elaborate, surging Waltz of the Snowflakes, we saw the corps in simplistic comings and goings and neat symmetrical groupings, occasionally offset by a bravura couple.

But problems arose even earlier. Astonishingly, in this version, Clara isn’t menaced by the mice at all. Although a mechanical mouse twice crosses the stage (before we hear the mouse music, however), the mice and the toy soldiers get into a battle without any apparent reference to her. She is left standing on the sidelines, observing the action. A critical plot point is lost.

Not much happens for her when the Nutcracker doll becomes a prince, either.

Incidentally, a charming but unprecedented Mrs. Mouse (uncredited in the program), wrings her paws and anguishes over the mock-heroic death throes of the Mouse King (Jeff Stanton). It’s cute but it undercuts the real musical and dramatic menace.

And so it goes.

At the start of Act II, the Sugar Plum Fairy appears, illogically without her consort or any of her court (but with 12 little angels), and her Variation is shifted from its proper place in the pas de deux to follow the introductory music. (Her consort’s Variation, inexplicably, is cut entirely.)

Half the Arabian Dance is played before any of the people in it dance. Instead, we get another magic trick. Four women carry on a big pot out of which eventually the sensuous Katita Waldo emerges to captivate the snake charmer Christopher Boatwright.

For all that, the company generally danced well when given the opportunity.

Wendy Van Dyck brought elegant polish and snappy finishes to the Snow Queen. Antonio Castilla partnered her attentively.

Evelyn Cisneros proved warm and generous as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Anthony Randazzo was her forceful and sympathetic Cavalier.

Andre Reyes, Christopher Anderson and David Justin made virtuosic Russian Cossacks. Christopher Stowell was the high-flying Chinese soloist.

Elizabeth Loscavio danced the Butterfly in the Waltz of the Flowers with plummy luxury. Earlier, Galina Alexandrova made a stylish Dancing Doll; Christopher Anderson, an agile Bear Doll.

The handsome corps revealed precision and security.

Jim Sohm made an avuncular, unthreatening Drosselmeyer. Solomon Wang, a 12-year-old from Long Beach, was his elegant nephew and Nutcracker Prince. Alina McHugh, 10, also from Long Beach, was the charming Clara.

Denis de Coteau led the Pacific Symphony with brisk tempos and a pedestrian view of the score. The San Francisco Boys Chorus contributed, via tape, to the Snow Scene vocalise.