Joffrey Ballet dancers Zachary Manske, Yumi Kanazawa and Hyuma Kiyosawa in “The Nutcracker“/Photo: Katie Miller
The streets of Chicago last weekend mirrored the 1892 depiction of the city within the Lyric Opera House, where glittery snow fell abundantly-though without any accumulation. It was opening weekend of the Joffrey Ballet’s “The Nutcracker,” a Chicago-themed reimagining of the holiday classic, now in its tenth season.
This “Nutcracker” (for those unfamiliar with the last decade’s production) transports the story to the winter preceding the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. The heroine, Marie, is not from a privileged background, as in E.T.A.Hoffmann’s original tale, but the daughter of immigrant workers residing in a shack near the construction site of the White City. Her mother is a sculptor commissioned to create the Statue of the Republic, now located in Jackson Park. Drosselmeyer is reimagined as a Daniel Burnham-esque figure: The Great Impresario and Marie’s guide through the Kingdom of sweets-or, in this case, the World’s Fair.
Caldecott medal-winning children’s author Brian Selznick penned the libretto and collaborated with an extraordinary creative team, including puppeteer Basil Twist, who designed the rat puppets that populate the shack and the Nutcracker/Rat King battle scene; Julian Crouch, whose sets and costumes imbue the immense lyric stage with vibrant color; and choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, whom the company commissioned to replace Robert Joffrey’s longstanding rendition. The Lyric Opera Orchestra, under the direction of Scott Speck, performs Tchaikovsky’s score live.
The result is a spectacular theatrical experience that embodies the season’s maximalism. The atmosphere is established in the lobby,where a towering pile of gifts shaped like a Christmas tree serves as an irresistible photo possibility. Dazzling projections by 59 Productions enhance the stage movement and extend the set beyond the proscenium arch. The dancing excels-notably Gayeon Jung as Marie’s mother and the Queen of the Fair (also known as the Sugar Plum Fairy),whose precision and fluid grace were particularly noteworthy.
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