A Loving Embrace - Swept up in Boston Ballet's 'Romeo & Juliet'
By Karen Campbell, Globe Correspondent | Feb. 15, 2008
Countless choreographers have brought Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" to the stage, and Boston Ballet has presented versions by Choo San Goh, Daniel Pelzig, and Rudi van Dantzig. But the company's splendid new production of the work choreographed by the late John Cranko hits the jackpot. This one is the whole package - elegant dancing, eye-popping pageantry, and vivid storytelling.
Cranko's is the most enduring balletic portrayal of the star-crossed lovers. Created by the South African-born choreographer in 1958, it was revamped four years later for his acclaimed Stuttgart Ballet. With this company premiere, Boston Ballet becomes only the second American troupe to present the work and the first in the United States to hit the Cranko trifecta with the choreographer's three most acclaimed full-evening ballets (the poignant "Onegin" and "The Taming of the Shrew" are the other two.)
But historic landmarks aside, "Romeo & Juliet" is a vibrant, compelling depiction of the familiar tragedy, and Boston Ballet gives it an outstanding production. Cranko's gift for storytelling relays the action through seamless dance drama. The dance numbers may sometimes lack a certain choreographic brilliance and imagination, but they are fluidly put to the service of telling Shakespeare's tale. The ballet opens just as 15th-century Verona awakens, with a large cast of townspeople gradually filling the stage with a host of lively mini-dramas. Cranko quickly sets up the two warring families, as the good-natured jousting of the Capulets and Montagues escalates to serious swordplay and a food fight, fruits and vegetables flying.
Throughout, the corps gets great opportunity to shine, as the action veers between the inti mate story of the young lovers and daily life in Verona. The company looked terrific in the large ensemble peasant dances, reeling through skip-and-kick sequences in striking floor patterns. A troupe of clowns tumbled and cartwheeled with acrobatic precision, led by Carnival King Bo Busby.
What there wasn't quite enough of was substantive choreography for the excellent principals, though solos and duets were effective in defining character. Larissa Ponomarenko caught Juliet's youth and vulnerability with playful effervescence, skittering across the stage like a feather in the wind, showering her mother with kisses or jumping piggy-back on her nurse (given a nicely fretful performance by Heather Myers). The delicate swoons and slides of Ponomarenko's duet with Mindaugas Bauzys's regal Paris subtly showed Juliet's pull between childhood and reluctant maturity. Her passion with Nelson Madrigal's fetching Romeo came through arresting backbends over his shoulder and soaring lifts, and in the touching balcony scene, one last sweet kiss before Romeo departs. Madrigal and Reyneris Reyes as Mercutio portrayed exuberant bravado with sharp footwork and brilliant turns midair.
Though the choreography sometimes misses the internal rhythms, it beautifully capitalizes on the musical drama inherent in Prokofiev's glorious score, performed with energy and aplomb but a few rough edges by the Boston Ballet orchestra under Jonathan McPhee. Susan Benson's costumes are gorgeous, especially the shimmering gold ballroom robes. But Benson's set design is disappointing, tending toward a monochromatic, stone-like gray. When she lightens up, the scenes are lovely, like the warm, gold-hued ballroom, with gaping lion's head entrance, and the bridged archway that is transformed into Juliet's balcony. The Capulet vault is especially clever, as a candlelit procession across the bridge ends by lowering Juliet's body down through the main archway into the darkness below.
Romeo & Juliet
Presented by the Boston Ballet
Choreography, John Cranko.
Staging, Jane Bourne.
Music, Sergei Prokofiev.
Set and costumes, Susan Benson.
Lighting, Christopher Dennis.
At: the Citi Wang Theatre, last night (through March 2) telecharge.com, 800-447-7400
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