Joffrey Ballet’s take on The Nutcracker, setting the classic holiday story in 1892 Chicago—just months ahead of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition—brings several twists to Tchaikovsky’s ballet, and transforms a tale that seems so quintessentially Russian into a delightful piece of Americana.
L. Frank Baum was famously inspired by the Exposition when he created Oz’s Emerald City, and Christopher Wheeldon’s interpretation here, first mounted by Joffrey in 2016, seemingly takes a cue from MGM’s 1939 adaptation of The Wizard of Oz: Opening in the drab environs of the workers building the Fair, then following along as the young heroine Marie (Annabelle de la Nuez) dreams of the colorful and joyful Exposition that at this point she can only imagine.
On Christmas Eve 1892, Marie’s family is visited by The Great Impresario (Alberto Velazquez), mastermind behind the Fair, and who is based in part on architect/planner Daniel Burnham. He’s the stand-in here for Herr Drosselmeyer so he’s the one who presents Marie with the titular nutcracker. Before we know it, the family’s Charlie Brown-ish Christmas tree has grown to fill the stage and the cast is off-and-dancing through designer Julian Crouch’s maximalist dreamscape.
Act Two opens with Marie and Peter (José Pablo Castro Cuevas), the Impresario’s apprentice, at the Exposition. Fairgoers stroll by in gorgeous pastels evoking the spring, and we follow Marie and Peter from pavilion to pavilion, where they see dancers from around the world.
Victoria Jaiani was completely captivating in the Arabian Dance; she and her partner Edson Barbosa entered at one point with Barbosa carrying her aloft, and Jaiani somehow gave off the impression she was flying. Another highlight was Dylan Gutierrez as Buffalo Bill, who, complete with lasso, performs the Russian Dance as part of his Wild West Show (which works surprisingly well).
The rest of the cast is top-notch, especially Velazquez’s Impresario and Amanda Assucena, who pulls double-duty as both Marie’s hard-working mother and the Queen of the Fair, as is Wheeldon’s choreography. From the first dancing rat to the last dancing walnut, Joffrey’s Nutcracker can rightfully be called a Chicago classic.
Joffrey Ballet’s The Nutcracker shows through Dec. 28 at Lyric Opera of Chicago, 20 N. Walker Dr. For more information and tickets, visit joffrey.org.