It’s nearly a decade since Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker! was last seen on stage and the show, originated in 1992, is one of Bourne’s most kitsch, cartoonish and colourful (that colour is mainly pink). This spruced-up revival, however, proves that his take on the Christmas classic is not merely froth.
The success of the Nutcracker as an enduring Christmas ballet is thanks to its festive theme and endlessly tuneful Tchaikovsky score – the narrative is famously “meh”. But in Bourne’s revamps he always brings character and story to the fore; his scenarios may not be realistic but they do have logic. Instead of the plushly decorated, upper class setting we often see, Bourne’s Clara (Cordelia Braithwaite) lives in a monochrome orphanage presided over by a tyrannical matron (the brilliant Daisy May Kemp) and Dr Dross (Danny Reubens, dressed in the mode of Herr Flick from ’Allo ’Allo). It’s somewhere you might actually want to escape from, which is what this fantasy is all about.
The Nutcracker can also be read as a story of sexual awakening and first love, and that’s what drives Bourne’s version. When Clara’s Nutcracker doll is made flesh at the stroke of midnight, he turns into a pure hunk (Harrison Dowzell, with the right dose of knowingness), and takes her on a journey to Sweetieland. But Clara has competition from Princess Sugar – Ashley Shaw playing a Mean Girl deliciously in love with herself – who steals Clara’s man.
All the earlier characters appear in Clara’s fantasy reincarnated as sweets: a gaggle of Wag-type marshmallow girls, some flamenco-dancing Liquorice Allsorts, laddish gobstoppers. It’s a pink, chewy, fizzy world of pleasure and desire, bodies twisting and thrusting with sensuous thrill. It’s all somehow very innocent while being orally fixated: they enter Sweetieland through a giant mouth, there are dance moves that mime stuffing cake (gracefully) into their gobs, plus a lot of licking. Anthony Ward’s designs use warped perspective and vivid colours, somewhere between a graphic novel and an acid trip. There’s a hint of the Grease dream scene, Beauty School Dropout, all clouds and dishy angels and walnut whip hair.
Bourne gets around the potentially racist nature of some of the Nutcracker’s “national” dances by reinventing entirely the Arabian dance for the slinky and seductive Knickerbocker Glory (Jonathon Luke Baker), in smoking jacket and whipped cream hairdo with cherry on top. His flirtations are both creepy and comic and all credit to Braithwaite, who throughout the show is constantly alive to the characters around her, and here is laughing, awkward and startled all at the same time.
Bourne’s choreographic style is a pick’n’mix: a bit of ballet, a bit of folky footwork, mime, quirky social dances and exaggerated shapes of his own making, with all sorts of witty references. Retro skaters recall wintry ballet Les Patineurs (although apparently the inspiration was skating film star Sonja Henie), and the orphans form a tableaux Petipa and Ivanov (Nutcracker’s original choreographers) could be proud of. Monique Jonas sparkles as one of the Allsorts and Dominic North is a standout as Fritz, Dr Dross’s obnoxiously spoiled son, who’s transformed into the gluttonous and somewhat saucy Prince Bon Bon, showing that you have to be a talented physical comedian to excel in Bourne’s shows (or certainly in this one). But everyone is engaged and full of energy in this very enjoyable confection.
• Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker! is at Sadler’s Wells, London, until 30 January, then touring.
