Review: English National Ballet’s new Nutcracker – unimaginative, plodding, unmusical

By some miracle, or very careful planning, I managed to avoid attending a single performance of The Nutcracker during the whole of 2024. It’s not that I dislike the ballet (after all, who doesn’t adore Tchaikovsky‘s glorious score?), but it sometimes seems as if there is no escape from it during the run-up to Christmas and the New Year. It’s not so many years ago that four separate productions of the ballet were presented at different theatres in London at the same time, which must surely be some kind of record.

Just two days into 2025, however, and what do I go and see but English National Ballet’s (ENB) new production of Nutcracker at the London Coliseum (the company has dropped ‘The’ from the ballet’s title). You can read Matthew Paluch’s opening night review here. Staged by artistic director Aaron S Watkin and choreographer Arielle Smith in new designs by Dick Bird, it replaces a much-disliked version of the ballet by former artistic director, Wayne Eagling, which in turn had replaced previous stagings by Christopher Hampson, Derek Deane, Ben Stevenson and Peter Schaufuss that were also unpopular with the critics.

The current artistic team at ENB has maintained a fairly traditional approach to the Christmas favourite by way of an Edwardian London setting that is surely influenced by Mary Poppins, Oliver Twist and Walt Disney. Dick Bird’s colourful sets, with the exception of the Kingdom of Sweets, are attractive, as are Paul Pyant’s video designs; the costumes less so. I wish I could be enthusiastic about the quality of the choreography and dancing; what I observed at the Coliseum on the evening of 2nd January was a company performing far below its true form in dances that were unimaginative, plodding, rudimentary and desperately unmusical. The orchestra, conducted by Daniel Parkinson, was also performing under par.

I don’t wish to give a blow-by-blow account of the performance here – suffice to say I was disappointed – but I do want to record my great pleasure in the dancing of Precious Adams, who was making her debut as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Poised and beautiful, she transformed the dullest of choreography into an expression of elegance and refinement, her port de bras, in particular, fluid and luscious – she is blossoming into what I consider to be a true ballerina. In addition to Adams, Daniel McCormick brought vitality, personality and excitement to the Makivnyk dance in Act II (formerly the Russian dance), and Carolyne Galvao gave a very promising, personable performance as Clara, despite being seriously hampered by the feeble and ineffectual partnering of the dancer who appeared as her Nutcracker Prince.

Sad to say, this new Nutcracker will be low on my list for return visits, but I do look forward to seeing ENB again when it performs Mary Skeaping’s fine production of Giselle at the London Coliseum in the near future.

Jonathan Gray Guest Author

Jonathan Gray was editor of Dancing Times from 2008 to 2022.

He studied at The Royal Ballet School, Leicester Polytechnic, and Wimbledon School of Art where he graduated with a BA Hons in Theatre Design. He was on the Curatorial Staff of the Theatre Museum, London, from 1989 to 2005, assisting on a number of dance-related exhibitions, and helping with the recreation of original designs for a number of The Royal Ballet’s productions including Danses concertantes, Daphnis and Chloë, and The Sleeping Beauty.

Jonathan Gray has also contributed to the Financial Times and The Guardian, written programme articles for The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet, and is co-author of the book Unleashing Britain: Theatre gets real 1955-64, published in 2005. He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.