Despite what those who start blasting Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” the day after Halloween, the true start of the holiday season is opening night of Stanton Welch’s The Nutcracker at Houston Ballet.
At least here in the Bayou City, anyway.
The ballet, based on E. T. A. Hoffmann’s “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” opens on Christmas Eve in the Stahlbaum household, where young Clara (gently and good-naturedly played by Mónica Gómez) sits in her room. Soon, her family barge in: her loving parents, Dr. and Mrs. Stahlbaum; older sister Louise; brother Fritz; and their dog, a shaggy scaredy-cat named Heinz. The parents give the children their presents before they all rush downstairs to ready for the family’s Christmas party. It’s here we get our first clue that something magical is afoot, as two of Clara’s toys come alive and climb out of their toybox to briefly make the family’s housemaid question her sanity.
With a house full of guests and the festivities in full swing, the mysterious Drosselmeyer and his magic show arrive. Drosselmeyer regales the partygoers with a tale about a prince and his sugar plum princess, separated when an evil king transforms the prince into a wooden nutcracker. Drosselmeyer passes gifts out to the children after the story – one of which is a nutcracker he gives to Clara. Jealous, Fritz tries taking the nutcracker from Clara, and accidentally breaks it in the process.
Drosselmeyer repairs the nutcracker and it’s placed on a high shelf for safekeeping, but when Clara sneaks downstairs to peek at her gift long after everyone’s left and her family’s gone to bed, she finds a lot more than just her present. She encounters a trio of rats, her toys frolicking, Drosselmeyer, and a battle between the Nutcracker and the Rat King. With Clara’s help, the Rat King is defeated, the Nutcracker is restored to his princely state, and Clara and Drosselmeyer travel to the Kingdom of Sweets to reunite the Nutcracker Prince with the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Welch’s Nutcracker is a holiday fantasy come to life, visually delightful and wonderfully dynamic. (And is it my imagination, or does this season’s Nutcracker seem, somehow, more cohesive?) The production is peppered with clever design choices, crowd-pleasing divertissements (naturally) and little Easter eggs that make it perfect for repeat viewing. We’ll get to giving the design team their props, but first what kind of fairy dust did Welch sprinkle on the cast before curtain because they were magical.
Clara is the heart of the story, and Gómez is radiant in the role. Gómez is well supported by the calming presences of Harper Watters and Natalie Varnum (who doubles as a magnetic Snow Queen), a preening Alyssa Springer, an energetic Eric Best (with the perfect boyish pout), and possibly the least creepy Drosselmeyer I’ve seen yet, played by Aaron Daniel Sharratt. I can’t emphasize enough how well-acted the production is, especially in the first act. Though it seems Welch incorporated as much dance as possible into the first act, you’d be forgiven if you found yourself forgetting at moments that it is, in fact, a ballet. But in terms of dance, you get all the bang for your buck during the celebratory divertissements in the second act.
Ryo Kato, in a toreador-inspired fit, represented Spain with an exuberant, showy flair. Led by a hypnotically alluring Yuriko Kajiya and Naazir Muhammad, Team Arabia were the picture of precision and poise. Despite her relatively short time on stage, Kajiya proved to be a highlight of the production, showing off an impossible-not-to-be-in-awe-of amount of control and balance. The light-footed Bridget Allinson-Kuhns turned in a snappy bit of footwork dancing on behalf of China, which led perfectly into the Russian dance.
An audible murmur of excitement passed through the crowd at the sight of the bear (representing Russia) indicating his country’s turn, and Simone Acri did not disappoint. Acri commanded the section, which moved at a breathless pace with high jumps, acrobatic splits, and dizzying whirls. Danbi Kim, as the Danish Woman, followed with a charming, cavity-inducing solo all while shepherding a flock of adorable little lambs away from two hungry foxes. The sailor-suited English dance, led by Jack Wolff, was dapper, peppy and all too brief. Quickly, we move on to the fan favorite French Man, a tantrum-throwing dandy anxious to get food into his stomach (even if it means chowing down on the frog, his own country’s representative animal) played by Syvert Lorenz Garcia. Gómez joins in a dreamy Waltz of the Flowers, before Aoi Fujiwara and Connor Walsh take the stage for their romantic pas de deux and solos as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Nutcracker Prince.
In their partnering, Fujiwara and Walsh truly capture the lyricism of the pas de deux. It’s graceful, with applause-drawing catches and lifts, and epic in its beauty in a way you don’t necessarily expect in what is essentially a Christmas show.
The Nutcracker is so well-populated, with so many performers contributing to the success of the production: Samuel Rodriguez (Harlequin), Gretel Batista (Columbine), Ryan Williams (Soldier) and Emma Forrester (Vivandere), doing yeoman’s work before the show, making balloon animals and helping warn against those potentially annoying cell phones. Kellen Hornbuckle (Sugar Plum Doll), Rench Soriano (Good Prince Doll) and Elivelton Tomazi (Evil King Doll) with their mechanized mannerisms as part of Drosselmeyer’s show. And all the party guests, every soldier and rat on the frontlines during battle, the flurries, the butterflies, the bumble bees, the gaggle of mustachioed chefs and waiters, and many more.
None of this would be possible without Conductor Ermanno Florio and the Houston Ballet Orchestra’s masterfully command of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s score. And, of course, Tim Goodchild’s costume and scenic designs are as lavish as ever. From the Stahlbaums’ gorgeously grand two-story home, brimming with opulence and warmth, to the the Kingdom of Sweets, a candy-coated confectioner’s dream filled with irreverent costumes, there’s no shortage of eye candy in the production. The sets are lit with crystalline clarity by Lisa J. Pinkham, and enhanced by Wendall K. Harrington’s projections. As in any good children’s story, we need to briefly veer into the nightmarish and Harrington’s projections bring us that moment as the set fractures and grows.
With The Nutcracker opening the day after Thanksgiving, it only seems right to express a little gratitude for their feel-good contribution to the holiday season. For two hours, you can escape into a storybook world, as picturesque as it is fantastical, a world where good vanquishes evil and a little adventure ends with you warm in your bed surrounded by family. What more can you ask for this holiday season?
Performances will continue through December 17 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and December 20-22 and 26; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays; 7:30 p.m. December 8, 14-15 and 19; 1 p.m. December 24; and 2 p.m. December 27 at the Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas. For more information, call 713-227-2787 or visit houstonballet.org. $30-$230.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
