NUTCRACKER REVIEW
Pioneer Press     Thursday, December 14, 2006

Classic Nutcracker' is rich, vibrant, entertaining
By Linda Shapiro

     "Ballet Minnesota's Classic Nutcracker" wraps the stage of the O'Shaughnessy like a homemade afghan with intricate patterns and rich, vibrant colors. It offers warmth and family feeling. And if it occasionally drops a few stitches, the overall effect is spirited and highly entertaining.

     The first act Christmas party in the 19th century Silberhaus drawing room bristles with celebration as elegant adults, adorable children, bustling maids and dancing boys (sometimes in ragged unison) swirl about in lively, looping patterns. Godfather Drosselmeyer, played with sinister jollity by Robert Cleary, distributes toys to the delighted children, including a spiffy Nutcracker for Clara Silberhaus.

    Freezing the action at various times during the festivities and adding pulsating strobe lights is a terrific way to foreshadow the menacing scene that takes place after midnight, when Clara sneaks downstairs to play with her beloved Nutcracker.  She is soon surrounded by frolicsome little mice and red-eyed rats, who are quickly dispatched by the Nutcracker and his crack regiment in a battle scene marked by carefully orchestrated mayhem.  The victorious Nutcracker, transformed into a handsome young officerwhisks Clara off to the Land of the Sugar Plum Fairy with help from swirling snowflakes and a whole cadre of vivacous little angels.

     Andrew Rist's choreography for the snowflakes is fast and brittle - more a blizzard than a soft, lyrical snowfall - and the ensemble often seems to be racing to keep up with the deluge of steps. More successful is his ravishing waltz of the Flowers in Act II, where lithe blossoms melt in and out of kaleidoscopic patterns with unaffected ease, led by Erin Warn as a prize-winning rose.

     Once in the castle of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Clara and the Nutcracker (danced with vitality and elan by Kathleen Schaefer and Allen Gregory) are entertained by dances from many lands.  These include a saucy "Carmen"-flavored Spanish; a robust Russian; and a piquant Chinese variation with spinning parasols, a dragon, and a smoke-belching demon.