The Nutcracker review: Royal Ballet's show is beautifully produced while ENB has many lovely touches

Royal Ballet ★★★★ / ENB ★★★

Each Christmas “we are one Nutcracker nearer death”, wrote critic Richard Buckle, and with three productions hitting the capital this month it’s easy to feel just as jaded. Sickly sweet, with a minimal plot, dancing mice, dolls and snowflakes, it’s a ballet seemingly designed for the cynical to hate. Yet done right, it can be pure magic.

The Royal Ballet’s 1984 staging, with revised choreography by Sir Peter Wright based on the Petipa/Ivanov original, is one of the best out there: beautifully produced, with real dramatic weight. Drosselmeyer (Gary Avis, on fabulous cape-twirling form) is now a key figure; Clara and her Nutcracker (Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambé) are no longer forced onto the sidelines in Act II.

Yes, it’s a tad unfair that the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Prince (Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov) waltz on halfway through to grab all the applause, but with dancing this dazzling, it’s hard to care.

ENB’s Nutcracker, made by former director Wayne Eagling, has many lovely touches but its plot is at times confusing: Clara, danced by 11-year-old Sophie Carter morphs into soloist Rina Kanehara; Clara’s sister shows up as a butterfly; the Mouse King’s role goes on and on. And when was the Arabian dance about a slave master cracking a whip at his harem?

Royal Ballet's Nutcracker runs until January 15 at the Royal Opera House (020 7304 4000; roh.org.uk) and ENB's The Nutcracker runs until December 30 at the London Coliseum.