Joffrey’s Lively ‘Nutcracker’ Returns

Fifty years ago this week, the first complete “Nutcracker” ever seen in America received its premiere in San Francisco. It took another decade before a full-length production reached Los Angeles (courtesy of George Balanchine), but, obviously, the ballet landscape hasn’t been the same since.

Always the liveliest of dance historians, the late Robert Joffrey renewed and extended many “Nutcracker” traditions in his 1987 staging for the company that still bears his name. And delight in those traditions--how they overlap, even how they clash--gave his “Nutcracker” a conceptual sophistication that loomed especially large on Wednesday, the opening night of a 10-performance Joffrey Ballet engagement at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Since the company last presented its “Nutcracker” at the Music Center in 1991, so many incoherent or brain-dead versions have infested Southland theaters that it’s a blessed relief to have this one back with all its faults. Working with designers Oliver Smith (sets), John David Ridge (costumes), Kermit Love (special challenges such as the mice and Mother Ginger) and Thomas Skelton (lights), Joffrey gave his multi-traditional “Nutcracker” satisfying scale, splendor and expressive detail.

In a layering of influences, the Joffrey “Nutcracker” incorporates dozens of genuine children a la Balanchine and other traditional stagings--but it also casts a grown-up dancer as Clara and makes Drosselmeyer very, very important throughout a la Nureyev, Baryshnikov and other Soviet-style modernizers.

Some of the charming oddities on view date back to the 1892 St. Petersburg original: the giant cabbage and pie in Act 1, for instance. Many sections pay tribute to the first “Nutcracker” Joffrey saw: a 1940 abridgment by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo--restaged for him by George Verdak.

Joffrey also added new pages to “Nutcracker” history by giving the ballet an all-American context and commissioning ensemble choreography from Gerald Arpino that introduced male snowflakes to the Act 1 finale years before Mark Morris took credit for it. (Arpino’s waltzing flowers also toss petals in the same way that Morris’ “Hard Nut” flakes hurl snow. Coincidence?)

You can argue that the pileup of tantalizing effects overwhelms the story, and the production ends up too much like those diamond-studded desserts in Act 2 that Clara never gets to eat. You can regret that Joffrey (like the Kirov, Ballet Theatre and so many others) didn’t trust Tchaikovsky and mucked about with the score--and that lots of the inherited choreography is stupendously unmusical.

Fair enough, but there’s also wit and even brilliance where you least expect them--in the mouse battle, for instance, which plays like an off-the-wall Shakespearean parody. Or nearly every moment that involves the children reminding you of the imaginative power that toys hold in their lives.

A sense of the imaginative power that dancing can hold also lends depth to this “Nutcracker”--with Rita Martinez’s Clara sitting on the sidelines in the last act on Wednesday, physically reflecting the divertissement dance motifs as if each one were a joyful celebration in itself.

A sunny Clara who grew protective once the Nutcracker was manhandled by her brother (the high-flying Calvin Kitten), Martinez avoided conventional sugarplum sentimentality in a performance full of spirit, variety and spontaneity.

Nearly as engaging, Ryuji Yamamoto made an unfailingly stylish Nutcracker Prince--not ideally tall enough for Deborah Dawn, perhaps, but capable of partnering her expertly and of gazing at her as if she were the greatest miracle in creation.

Alas, she wasn’t, but at least her small-scaled dancing as the Sugar Plum Fairy had diligence and plenty of warmth going for it.

Even though rolling fog sometimes reached their knees, Lissette Salgado and Tyler Walters managed to look like decent classical dancers in the snow scene. Kitten jumped with memorable lightness here, and returned for a Chinese duet in Act 2 that confirmed his mastery of the air.

Other divertissements showcased such prime Joffrey assets as Beatriz Rodriguez (Spanish) and Pierre Lockett (Arabian).

As Drosselmeyer, the company miscast Adam Sklute, one of its most youthful and appealing all-American dancer-athletes. Disfigured by the makeup, unsuited to the characterization, Sklute shot the works: Manolete never hurled his cape as forcefully, or as often. If finely focused energy could satisfy all by itself, this would be a memorable Drosselmeyer. But it can’t, it didn’t. The Joffrey needs a character specialist and Sklute a more appropriate outlet for his talents.

With the help of the Lamarca America Variety Singers, Allan Lewis conducted a tidy if sometimes overbrisk interpretation of the score. Finally, if Scott Barnard deserves great credit for co-staging this dauntingly complex project, praise should also be lavished on Lori Eckenweiler, Marilyn Hassaniah and Dina Goreshter for getting the sweetest, neatest children’s performances the Joffrey “Nutcracker” has ever offered in Los Angeles.

* The Joffrey Ballet “Nutcracker” repeats today at 2 and 7:30 p.m., and Monday through Dec. 30 at 8 p.m. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is located in the Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown. (213) 972-7211 . Tickets: $15-$60.