Going Completely Nuts

Like Handel’s oratorio “The Messiah” and dramatizations of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” productions of “The Nutcracker” are annual performance rituals that bind audiences together and affirm societal values--but also offer visions of cruelty and death en route to their joyous conclusions.

Of the three, “The Nutcracker” is the youngest and easily the most malleable, existing in so many versions that nothing is certain anymore--not the first name of its child-heroine (is she Clara or Marie?), not her last name (Stahlbaum or Silberhaus?), nor what happens to her at the end of her eventful Christmas dream:

Does she stay asleep, wake up, grow up, run away or die? The answer is yes: All that happens and more in different productions that can be seen this season locally on stage or television. You can also find a major “Nutcracker” or two on world stages without a recognizable nutcracker, without a Sugar Plum Fairy, without children, even without Christmas.

Originally, you will recall, “The Nutcracker” started off with a depiction of a Christmas party, then grew scary in a nightmarish battle between mice and toy soldiers--and suddenly turned sumptuously classical in a display of dancing snowflakes. With virtually all the plot used up before intermission, Act 2 relied on showpiece after showpiece set in the Kingdom of Sweets.

Although “The Sleeping Beauty” offers lots more Tchaikovsky music and even less plot, it has escaped the wholesale tinkering suffered by “The Nutcracker” through most of this century and, in particular, the radical psychosexual revisions imposed by two generations of Soviet choreographers.

Happily, that wave of reinterpretation has passed, so if you want to see Clara/Marie sexually molested by the mice, hit on by Drosselmeyer or transformed from a child-in - a - nightgown to a woman - in - a - tutu, you’ll have to search among the seven or eight different adaptations that typically re-screen on television each Christmas.

On stage, however, the big “Nutcracker” news right now could be described as environmental: a rejection of the antique, Imperial Russian approach in favor of an attack more contemporary and much closer to home.

Three “Nutcracker” productions on California stages this season ground the traditional story of a Christmas dream in the multicultural realities of modern America.

Scheduled for its West Coast premiere engagement Dec. 14-21 at UC Berkeley, Mark Morris’ 5-year-old “The Hard Nut” moves the ballet to 1960s suburbia, where he grew up, with the fashions, behavior and rock dances of that period existing in outrageous yet meticulous counterpoint to the beloved 1892 score: dirty dancing to Tchaikovsky. Though the production won’t be traveling to Los Angeles, it has been seen on PBS and is available on home video.

Donald Byrd’s brand-new “Harlem Nutcracker” (Wiltern Theatre, Dec. 27-29) also uses American social dances along with show dancing, but develops a distinctive African American perspective on “Nutcracker” lore through its boldly revamped story and the use of Duke Ellington’s fabled jazz adaptation of Tchaikovsky’s themes.

Finally, Viji Prakash’s Hindu-ized 1993 “Nutcracker” (James Armstrong Theater in Torrance, Nov. 30 and Dec. 1) retells the familiar story in a different movement language: Bharata Natyam, an ancient classical dance idiom of India. Moreover, only echoes of Tchaikovsky remain in the new score by Babu Parameswaran.

A dancer, choreographer and teacher who has built a large following in the Southland with traditional and experimental Bharata Natyam productions, Prakash is after something more complex than merely transferring “The Nutcracker” to South Asia. With its inclusion of all-American baton-twirling, Hawaiian hula girls and dancing Hershey’s Kisses, her version reflects the overlapping cultural identities and possible fantasies of a child raised in Southern California of parents from India: perhaps a child very much like her own dancing daughter Mythili, who plays the Nutcracker.

However, Prakash, like Morris and Byrd, denies any direct autobiographical connections, saying, “I think ‘The Nutcracker’ is a universal story--there is a Clara and a Drosselmeyer in every culture. I have strongly identified parts of my production with America, so it is most relevant for those of us who live and grow up here. But, ultimately, I would like people to see it without geographical or cultural constraints--and leave the theater thinking about the inner meaning of Clara’s fantasy.”

Nor should audiences consider the dancing as typical Prakash classicism. “There are more jumps and upper torso movements than in traditional Bharata Natyam,” she explains, “more flowing movements rather than the constant pounding of the feet. And our costumes are what we’d wear in India socially, not the customary dance clothing.”

Finally, there’s the question of whether a dance idiom that usually expresses the cosmic philosophy of “Mahabharata” and other Hindu epics is suitable for this tale of toys that come to life, mouse warriors and dancing desserts. “It is a very light story for an Indian art form,” Prakash acknowledges, “but if there is any system of dance that is open to anything different, it is Bharata Natyam.”

Prakash, Morris and Byrd all speak of being inspired or influenced by George Balanchine’s “Nutcracker” for New York City Ballet--the most celebrated traditional staging anywhere, based partly on the choreographer’s memories of the St. Petersburg original.

To New Yorker Byrd, a fearless modernist who put blackface makeup on African American dancers for his controversial “Minstrel Show” and radically reworked “Giselle” to mete out justice to the caddish Albrecht, “the lesson to be learned from Balanchine is how clear his story is, the ability to distill. And that’s what I’ve tried to use as a model.”

However, Byrd’s story is worlds away from Balanchine’s, reconceiving Clara as a grandmother in the African American community whose fantasy journey takes her back in time to a Cotton Club-style showplace during the heyday of the Harlem Renaissance.

“What I’m trying to do is a ‘Nutcracker’ which, at the center, is really American,” Byrd says. “The Joffrey Ballet production may be set in America, but the values of the people in the story are the same as those in 19th century [European-style] stagings. I’ve tried to focus on the values that are American--and race is a central issue in this country’s thinking and being.”

During what Byrd calls his “time travel” sequence in Act 2, the choreographer adds to the cast of characters the figure of Death, who appears to Clara in the nightclub and presents scenes from her life in theatrical dumb-show: scenes that include her family’s struggles during the civil rights era.

“The point is to have the audience connect and identify with this woman,” Byrd comments. “It’s about the impact of a particular period on her emotional life. But the challenge is to have [social issues] remain a part of it and not overwhelm the whole.

“It’s no longer a children’s story, but this is still a light entertainment in many ways,” he says. “Americans don’t want it too dark. You have to be realistic about who’s out front, to learn to confront some audience expectations about ‘The Nutcracker’ and meet others.”

Obviously, those expectations are conditioned by the large number of traditional stagings on view in most large population centers, stagings that often prove memorable chiefly because of their special effects.

In the Southland, for example, the Los Angeles Classical Ballet “Nutcracker” is best known for its flying sleigh at the end of the Act 1 snow scene; the Joffrey version for its 14-foot Mother Ginger rod puppet in the Act 2 divertissement; the San Francisco Ballet production for its virtuosic dancing bear in the Act 1 Christmas party.

All will be back on local stages before the end of the year (see list, facing page) along with more than a dozen others that follow the standard sequence of events on view for 104 years.

Most recently represented locally with his staging of Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice” for the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, the almost mythically irrepressible Mark Morris has seen many such “Nutcracker” stagings, he says, “good and bad, and not only do they pay the companies’ bills for the rest of the year, they provide opportunities to say ‘look at the pretty ballerina.’ That’s not enough.” However, he denies creating “The Hard Nut” to satirize or respond to “Nutcracker” business-as-usual.

“Lots of people think it’s more sarcastic than it really is,” he says. “It takes such a lot of time and money to put it on--and I wouldn’t do all that for just its negative value.”

Morris insists he “mostly wanted to put some life back into Act 1, where the music is so good and is usually just a backdrop for mime. And I wanted to make the [Act 2] divertissement go all over the world, trying to pack in all of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s points from the original story, which is a bigger, scarier and more rewarding scenario--rather than do the standard dances that don’t really relate to the ethnicity of the music. I did it because of the score.”

Ironically, Morris has been more faithful to Tchaikovsky than the traditional Joffrey, San Francisco, L.A. Classical and Balanchine productions, each of which cuts, resequences or adds music.

So if the irreverent style of “The Hard Nut” pushes “Nutcracker” malleability to the limit--imposing visions of Barbie dolls, G.I. Joe toys, Trockadero-drag and plastic suburbia on a child’s Christmas dream--in the deepest sense, its heart and soul belong to 1892.

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* HOLIDAY HELPER

Santa has a lot of seasonal concerts lined up this year. Page 56.

Taking the little ones to “Nutcracker”? See Life & Style, E2.

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A Month of ‘Nutcrackers’ Viji Prakash’s Bharata Natyam “Nutcracker”: Saturday, 6:30 p.m.; Dec. 1, 2 p.m. James Armstrong Theatre, 3300 Civic Center Drive, Torrance, (310) 781-7171. $12 (children)-$25.

Channel Islands Ballet Company: Dec. 6, 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 7, 3 and 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 8, 3 p.m. Oxnard Performing Arts Center, 800 Hobson Way, (805) 486-2424. $11-$28.

Festival Ballet Theatre: Dec. 6, 7 p.m.; Dec. 7, 2 and 7 p.m.; Dec. 8, 2 p.m. Robert B. Moore Theatre, Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa, (714) 432-5880. $12 (children, seniors)-$16.

Nouveau Chamber Ballet: Dec. 6, 8 p.m.; Dec. 7, 2 and 8 p.m.; Dec. 8, 2 p.m. Fullerton College Campus Theatre, 321 E. Chapman Ave., (714) 526-3862. $8-$12.

Inland Pacific Ballet: Dec. 7, 8 p.m.; Dec. 8, 2 p.m.; Dec. 13-14, 8 p.m.; Dec. 15, 2 p.m. Bridges Auditorium, Claremont Colleges, 450 N. College Way, Claremont, (909) 482-1591. $10 (children, seniors)-$16.

Los Angeles Classical Ballet: Dec. 7, 2 and 8 p.m.; Dec. 8, 2 p.m.; Dec. 13, 8 p.m.; Dec. 14, 2 and 8 p.m.; Dec. 15, 2 p.m. Long Beach Terrace Theater, Convention and Entertainment Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd. Also Dec. 20, 8 p.m.; Dec. 21, 2 and 8 p.m.; Dec. 22, 2 p.m. Shrine Auditorium, 649 W. Jefferson Blvd., (800) 46-BALLET. $16-$42.

Pasadena Dance Theatre: Dec. 7, 2 and 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 8, 2 p.m. San Gabriel Civic Auditorium, 320 S. Mission Drive, (818) 308-2868. $12.50 (children)-$25.

Westside Ballet: Dec. 7, 2 and 7 p.m.; Dec. 8, 2 p.m. Barnum Hall, Santa Monica High School, 601 Pico Blvd., (310) 828-6211. $8 (children)-$17. Also Dec. 21, 2 and 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 22, 2 p.m. Marsee Auditorium, El Camino College, 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance, (800) 832-ARTS. $8 (children)-$18.

West Valley Ballet Company: Dec. 7, 2 and 7 p.m.; Dec. 8, 2 p.m.; Dec. 21, 2 and 7 p.m.; Dec. 22, 2 p.m. Performing Arts Center, Cal State Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St., (818) 346-1578. $10 (children)-$12.

San Francisco Ballet: Dec. 12-23, 7:30 p.m.. Also Dec. 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 at 2 p.m. and Dec. 24, 11 a.m. Pasadena Civic Auditorium, 300 E. Green St., (213) 480-3232. $21-$61.

Coast Ballet Theatre: Dec. 12 and 13, 8 p.m.; Dec. 14, 3 and 8 p.m.; Dec. 15, 3 p.m. McKinney Theatre, Saddleback College, 28000 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo, (714) 582-4656. $10 (children)-$13.

Dance Peninsula: Dec. 12, 7 p.m.; Dec. 13, 8 p.m.; Dec. 14, 2 and 8 p.m.; Dec. 15, 2 and 7 p.m. Norris Theatre, 27570 Crossfield Drive, Rolling Hills Estates, (310) 544-0403. $7 (children, seniors)-$12.

Ballet Pacifica: Dec. 13, 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 14 and 15, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 20-23, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 24, 2:30 p.m. Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, (714) 854-4646. $13-$16.

Moscow Classical Ballet: Dec. 19-22, 2 and 7 p.m. California Center for the Arts, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido, (800) 98-TICKETS. $15-$33.

California Ballet: Dec. 19 and 20, 8 p.m.; Dec. 21, 2:30 and 8 p.m.; Dec. 22, 1 and 5:30 p.m.; Dec. 24, 2:30 p.m. San Diego Civic Theatre, 202 C St., (619) 236-6510. $19-$39.50.

California Dance Theatre: Dec. 20, 8 p.m.; Dec. 21, 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Dec. 22, 3 p.m. Probst Center, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd., (805) 449-ARTS. $15-$30.

California Riverside Ballet: Dec. 21, 2 and 8 p.m.; Dec. 22, 2 p.m. Riverside Municipal Auditorium, 3485 Mission Inn Ave., (909) 788-3944. $5-$15.

Joffrey Ballet of Chicago: Dec. 24, 8 p.m.; Dec. 26, 8 p.m.; Dec. 27 and 28, 2 and 8 p.m.; Dec. 29, 2 p.m. Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, (714) 556-2787. $18-$59.

Donald Byrd’s “Harlem Nutcracker”: Dec. 27, 8 p.m.; Dec. 28, 2 and 8 p.m.; Dec. 29, 2 and 7 p.m. Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., (310) 825-2101. $9 (UCLA students)-$35.