A view of holiday cheer from the left out

CREATED for England’s Opera North in 1992 as “The Nutcracker,” but revised and retitled a decade later, choreographer Matthew Bourne’s “Nutcracker!” wants to be a satiric look at what the have-not children of this world see as the big lie of Christmas cheer.

Like Bourne’s “Swan Lake,” “Cinderella” and “The Car Man,” it displays his genius for reimagining a repertory classic and giving it a powerful new impetus -- in this case, a Harry Potterish sense of how the ragamuffin under the stairs feels while rich kids gorge on holiday desserts.

Bourne’s New Adventures company brought this distinctively comic, sometimes scary and disarmingly adult yuletide fantasy to the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Tuesday for the first of eight performances -- with a two-week UCLA engagement scheduled to begin Wednesday.

Set in an orphanage out of Dickens or Edward Gorey, Act 1 is perfect: faultlessly matched with the Tchaikovsky score (on tape, alas) yet so intent on depicting helpless children manipulated by adults that some of the dances become parodies of the relentlessly cute, over-regimented kiddie performances in many a conventional “Nutcracker.”

As in his “Cinderella,” with its stepsisters and stepbrothers, Bourne expands the axis of menace here, giving sadistic little Fritz (Neil Penlington) a sexpot sister, Sugar (Michaela Meazza). Moreover, in Bourne’s version, old Drosselmeyer, a.k.a. Dr. Dross (James Leece), not only is the orphanage’s big cheese, but he also has a wife (Annabelle Dalling) who makes Cruella De Vil look like Mary Poppins.

Under the thumb of such nasties, what’s a poor waif like Clara (Etta Murfitt) to do other than follow orders, hug her doll -- and then hide under the bed when it turns into a life-size monster who wrecks the place?

Although a skating fantasy makes a charming end to Act 1, Clara’s dreams keep turning into nightmares, and that’s a problem in Act 2: The score just doesn’t support her exclusion from the big party in Sweetieland or her heartbreak once she sneaks in. For once, Bourne’s normally incisive musicality fails him and his action plan looks imposed, not integral.

Designer Anthony Ward emphasizes monochromatic cartoon Expressionism in Act 1 but then goes for broke in Act 2 with an apotheosis of goo: sets and costumes intended to look edible but sickeningly oversweet (another parody of conventional “Nutcracker” productions).

The fantasy characters (dream-transformations of orphanage people Clara knew at the orphanage) provide some wildly unlikely divertissements, but their antics grow tiresome when Bourne asks them to repeatedly lick the set, their hands and one another in choreographed orgies of gluttony set to “The Waltz of the Flowers” and other inappropriate accompaniments. Overkill as a theme, yes; as a choreographic effect, no.

In addition, Sugar’s capture of Clara’s hunky beau (Alan Vincent) yields the least satisfying choreography of the evening, and by the time the ending takes us back to the orphanage -- and Bourne’s musical/dramatic mastery -- it feels too late.

Under the circumstances, it’s probably best to ignore his attempt to bring a narrative through-line to Act 2 and see it as a series of witty frissons: five Marshmallow girls bopping to the Chinese Dance, for instance, or Paulo Kadow making the Arabian Dance a delirious exercise in seduction by a man-size ice-cream cone in a smoking jacket.

There are three dancers listed for most of the principal roles, and by opening night the company had provided neither night-by-night casting data nor any program insert to tell you who you were seeing. (Check the signboard near the OCPAC entrance -- on Tuesday the only available resource.)

Murfitt has been dancing Clara since 1992, and she dominated the first cast with her energy, skill and wholehearted belief in the work’s events and conflicts. Vincent partnered her ardently but grew curiously faceless after becoming Sugar’s property. Meazza had more fun with the comic interactions of Act 1 than with her icy vamp duties in Act 2 but always danced expertly.

Among the divertissement leads, Vicky Evans had all the nightclub sleaze needed for the Spanish Dance -- with Richard Winsor and Sam Archer ideally delirious as her chorus boys, while Shelby Williams and Philip Willingham bumbled endearingly as the Cupids: Clara’s inept guardian angels.

Leece, Penlington and Dalling hadn’t anything more interesting to do in the second half of “Nutcracker!” than model outlandish dessert-wear, but Dalling proved unforgettable in Act 1, whether crushing helpless urchins into her bosom with feigned compassion or striking ridiculous poses from an ancient art-of-the-dance tome in the orphanage library.

Indeed, after you’ve seen Bourne’s flawed but intermittently brilliant “Nutcracker!,” the pages of a musty textbook is where nearly every previous version seems to belong.

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‘Nutcracker!’

Where: Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: 8 p.m. today through Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; 7:30 p.m. Sunday

Price: $25 to $75

Contact: (714) 556-2787 or www.ocpac.org

Also

Where: Royce Hall, UCLA

When: 8 p.m. Dec. 15-17, 21-23 and 27-30; 7 p.m. Dec. 18-19 and 26; 2 p.m. Dec. 18-19, 22-24, 26, 29-30 and Jan. 1

Price: $35 to $75

Contact: (310) 825-2101 or www.UCLALive.org