Nutcracker at the London Coliseum review: ENB’s astoundingly pretty new production of the Christmas classic hits the sweet spot Nutcracker is ballet’s annual sugar rush – a gulp of delicious dance and Tchaikovsky’s music.
Hitting the literal sweet spot between trashy and smugly tasteful can prove tricky, but English National Ballet’s new production – fun, cohesive and astoundingly pretty – delivers Quality Street levels of moreish pleasure.
Productions of Nutcracker can struggle to locate a workable plot – ENB’s last version was barely coherent – but these magical characters reflect Clara’s waking world.
Afterwards, little Clara creeps downstairs and dreams: of a battle with the mice, a flight through the snow with a prince to the land of sweet delight.
One of the show’s few misjudgements is nudging the toymaker Drosselmeyer from uncanny to positively creepy – Junor Souza gives him way too much feline vim.
