Review of Royal Ballet’s The Nutcracker: “Spectacular Christmas Magic”

We’re not even in December yet, but apparently Christmas has begun in London, and now we’re expected to get into the back of the Mariah-roaring rickshaw to launch the big assault on our wallets, ready to be harassed in the hope that, amidst all the smugness disguised as generosity, we’ll slip into a moment of drunken hilarity that doesn’t result in an HR query.

However, if you spend a few hours watching The Royal Ballet’s The Nutcracker, it’s impossible not to lose your cynicism. It’s a reminder of what Christmas is really about: No, not about Jesus – that’s a fairy, a good hit of pure pagan whimsy – but coming together, individual display, exquisite spectacle and… well, magic.

This returning production of Sir Peter Wright’s 1984 version of The Nutcracker is one that will amaze you with that magic in terms of performance and production. Full of illusions on stage – including a couple this reporter is still afraid of – it’s like watching a George Méliès extravaganza from the early silent film days, with Thomas Whitehead’s Mr Drosselmeyer as a twirling Mephistopheles performing tricks to ingratiate himself with the family whose Christmas Eve party he has just attended.

He’s not evil – although his assistant, played with superb, mischievous playfulness by Harrison Lee, may be – but he has an ulterior motive: This toy maker managed to anger the Mouse King by building traps to kill half of his kind, who then took revenge by turning Drosselmeyer’s nephew Hans-Peter into a nutcracker puppet. Makes sense, but economically it’s a dead end. Drosselmeyer now wants to give this doll to Clara – the daughter of the household – in the belief that she can help defeat the Mouse King and free his nephew.

The first half, largely set at the party, is a perfectly calibrated mix of chamber music subplots and stirring disruptions, with Clara fascinated by the embrace of the magical that has taken on her staid, formal family gathering; Viola Pantuso gives Clara an individual flair that, in addition to childlike romance, also suggests a drive for independence.

When the party is over, Clara sneaks downstairs to take a look at her nutcracker, but Drosselmeyer jumps out from behind a suspiciously massive mechanical owl and, in a bravura moment (mild spoiler ahead), raises the Christmas tree to epic proportions and whisks Clara away to another world to fight the Mouse King and free Hans-Peter (Leo Dixon) from shell hell.

With this accomplishment come the moments we have all been waiting for, with the plethora of celebratory dances to Tchaikovsky’s famous sequences under the magnificent direction of Koen Kessels, restoring the well-known melodies to their transcendent height, free of the Fruit & Nut commercials stuck in your brain. A particular highlight is Melissa Hamilton and Nicol Edmonds’ Arabic Dance, a sensual fugue that is both muscular and fluid, giving Clara a vision of a faraway land where pleasures do not revolve around beating up servants.

And then comes the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, which doesn’t disappoint. In fact, Fumi Kaneko is nothing short of spectacular, a charismatic tutu bombshell who pirouettes endlessly in bravura, a display of bravura that seems as effortless as breathing. William Bracewell’s “Prince” never seems to touch the ground next to her, and the pair bring the house down with the sheer joy that comes from breaking all the rules of physics.

When we return to reality, to the real world, it retains the quality of a dream, in which Hans-Peter is reunited with Drosselmeyer and Clara runs down the street, presumably to plan her escape from her family.

There was an extra special feeling at the Royal Opera House on this opening night as Sir Peter Wright came on stage for the curtain call – it was his 99th birthday. A beautiful moment, given the correspondingly electrifying reception. And he must have been happy that his Nutcracker retained its legendary status. Not just an annual visit to one of the usual shows, but a chance to escape into a world where gentility, politeness, ritual and sublime forms of humanity are on display.

Out on the street, on the train home, full of drunks and pasties, the Chrimbo binge is underway, but the vision of the past in The Nutcracker feels not just nostalgic but more like a reminder of a magic that is still within our grasp.

The Nutcracker is at the Royal Ballet & Opera until Jan 5th