Reviewing the Drama: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Ballet, Movies, and TV Reviews

The New York City Ballet Here/Now Festival continues, and on Saturday, May 6, I got to see program five, which includes the newest from Alexei Ratmansky, Odessa . Herein, some notes about all five ballets that are part of the program. Jeu de Cartes —For a ballet that's supposed to be light, the choreography is heavy, it feels—in many sections—grounded. This Peter Martins ballet, which is set to Igor Stravinsky's eponymous composition, is meant to be an abstract representation of a card game. Megan Fairchild is the Queen of Hearts, and she's joined along the way by Harrison Ball , Joseph Gordon , and Aaron Sanz as the Kings of Spades, Diamonds, and Clubs (respectively). The estimable ensemble are also dressed as the various suits. For all that frivolity, it's just an uninteresting ballet. It's not bad or off-putting, but it's also not engaging, despite, on Saturday, a talented cast. Gordon was fine if a little one-dimensional; Sanz was appropriately ...

Helping to kick off New York City Ballet's Here and Now Festival, which celebrates modern choreographers' works, was an all-Wheeldon program. During the evening, fans got to watch four ballets by the Tony-winning choreographer , who was the company's first resident choreographer. The evening began with Mercurial Manoeuvres , which, notably, is the last ballet Wheeldon choreographed for the company while still one of its principal dancers. A ballet for 21 dancers (set to Shostakovich's "Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Minor, Opus 35"), this has a decidedly militaristic feel in the ensemble moments. (Watch, for example, the dancers' arms—they move with precision like the hands on a clock. It's exact and clipped.) That's beautifully juxtaposed with the grace and softness of the utterly impressive pas de deux (danced on Saturday by Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle ). Both types of dancing—ensemble and pas—are mercurial. The ensemble keeps changing forma...

Carousel   Revival to Hit Broadway in 2018 A revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel  will bow on Broadway in spring 2018, officially opening at a theatre to be announced on March 23. The production will be directed by Jack O'Brien  ( Catch Me If You Can ) and choreographed by NYCB resident choreographer  Justin Peck  ( Everywhere We Go , The Times Are Racing ). Peck's fellow NYCB dancers Amar Ramasar  and Brittany Pollack  will be among the company, figuring prominently in the act two dream ballet. The production will star Tony winner Jessie Mueller  ( Beautiful , Waitress ) as Julie Jordan and two-time Tony nominee Joshua Henry  ( The Scottsboro Boys , Violet ,  Shuffle Along... ) as Billy Bigelow. (Now this photo of Justin and Joshua has been demystified.) Opera diva Renee Fleming  will also appear in the production. In the  Playbill  announcement, Peck promises "an even more dance-and-movement-f...

Notes on the Stravinsky x Five program, five ballets, all set to Igor Stravinsky compositions: Scenes de Ballet : This is an early Christopher Wheeldon work. In fact, as program notes state, it was Wheeldon's second ballet for NYCB. As the title suggests, the ballet shows scenes from a ballet class, starting with young children and maturing through about-to-graduate. (All the dancers are SAB students.) Ian Falconer 's scenic design sees a ballet barre running down the center of the stage, with a suggested but unseen mirror atop, just like in class. For much of the ballet, there are dancers on either side of the barre mirroring one another. This is a lovely ballet, showing the romanticism of the art form, from the little tiny dreamers to the slightly older dreamers. It's certainly nothing remarkable (like Wheeldon's breakthrough Polyphonia or After the Rain ), but delightful nevertheless. The Cage : I think this Jerome Robbins ballet is fabulous. "The...

Notes on the 21st Century Choreographers program: (This program was supposed to include the new ballet by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Unframed , which debuted at the NYCB fall gala. As occasionally happens, the program was changed, and instead of Unframed , we saw the After the Rain  pas de deux.) For Clara : This marks principal dancer Lauren Lovette 's choreographic debut with the Company, making her one of the few women to have choreographed for the New York City Ballet. (Lovette choreographed when she was a student, but not since joining the Company.) Lovette uses "Introduction and Concert-Allegro, Op. 134" by Robert Schumann , and has said that the title of her ballet is an homage to Schumann's wife, Clara. As this was created for the fall gala, which, for several years, has seen the fusion of fashion and ballet, fashion designer Narciso Rodriguez designed the costumes (so you can thank him for dressing Zachary Catazaro in nothing by tight dance pants). Lov...