Image: milwaukeeballet.org
The Nutcracker - Milwaukee Ballet
When Michael Pink, newly hired as Milwaukee Ballet’s artistic director, created his unique and personal production of The Nutcracker in 2003, he had to use the scenery and costumes that had served his predecessor’s vision. The result has been the show we’ve been enjoying ever since. Pink recently announced that this will be the next-to-last year for that production. He promises a new premiere in 2023, with new designs and reconsidered choreography. Our memories of the current show will only add to the experience, he promises.
Tchaikovsky’s score won’t change. The physical and emotional impact it produces when you’re there in the room as it’s perfectly rendered live by the Milwaukee Ballet Symphony can probably produce genetic changes. The greatest thing about Pink’s choreography is that it meets that music head on, and soars to the heights with it. When Marie and Karl express their love in gorgeous dance lifts, your heart stops. When Marie’s siblings Clara and Fritz dance with their magical friends, you clap along with them to that Tchaikovsky beat.
There’s so much to watch in Pink’s story ballets. He keeps your eyes moving yet draws your focus wherever it needs to be to understand the story and its characters.
It’s up to the dancers to make it all work. The opening night cast was stellar. Superstars Marize Fumero and Davit Hovhannisyan were superb as Marie and Karl, spinning, leaping, lifting and balancing, taking us into the music. Alana Griffith gave young Clara total agency, dancing as if by nature. As her brother Fritz, the fiery and funny Barry Molina often stole the show. Among the many things I hope will stay in Pink’s new production are Clara’s and Fritz’s comic interactions with the other characters.
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Garrett Glassman made a smashing debut as the toymaker/dream maker Drosselmeyer, a role he seemed born to play. Add to that the masterful performances by Lizzie Tripp and Ransom Wilkes-Davis as the strong, elastic, sexy Arabian dancers; Annia Hidalgo and Marko Micov, crystal-sharp in the Spanish dance; Parker Brasser-Vos as the collapsible Jack Doll; Lahna Vanderbush as the unbalanced Shepherdess Doll; and Marie Harrison-Collins as the joyous, generous Snow Queen.
The casting will shift a lot as the run continues. Each cast is intriguing and appealing. It’s been two years since this show was staged, and some of the dancers are quite new to it. They’ll all bring new qualities and interpretations. There was a lot that felt new in the opening performance. Maybe it’s because the show is back after COVID, but the dancers seemed especially unleashed. The shifting casts will help sustain that spontaneity.
There are two things I wouldn’t miss in a new production: that the family has servants; and that each of the dozen children in the party scene is thrilled when every boy gets a toy weapon and every girl gets a doll as a holiday gift.
But this show makes a glorious holiday gift. You’ll want to remember it.
Performances run through Dec. 26 at the Marcus Performing Arts Center. For dates, times, tickets and safety protocols, visit milwaukeeballet.org.
