In the new Scene, Jack Silverman watches the Natalie Portman ballet thriller Black Swan (which opens Friday in Nashville theaters) with a panel of tough critics — past and current members of the Nashville Ballet, who offer insight into everything from physical and psychological injury to the movie's evidently none-too-gentle use of Swan Lake.
Among the guest reviewers is Sadie Harris, currently featured in the Nashville Ballet's blockbuster annual presentation of Nashville's Nutcracker. (That Tchaikovsky guy gets around.) Harris was singled out for praise in a New York Times review of the production this week by Alistair Macaulay, who's watching Nutcrackers all over the country to measure the ballet's durability and adaptability. Here's Macaulay on the local production, which uses Nashville landmarks as well as the backdrop of the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition:
In the overture, Clara Stahlbaum is taken by her Uncle Drosselmeyer —- Nashville denizens both — to the exposition, where she meets international individuals who impress her young mind; then Uncle conjures a Nutcracker that swiftly disappears. Christmas (two months later) begins with a snowy landscape and ice skating at Shelby Bottoms. Then at the Stalhbaums’ party, Drosselmeyer and his nephew are star guests. ... Just how well this works depends in part on designs and lighting. The production begins with a sepia-toned frontcloth view of the Exposition buildings but uses full color inside the Stahlbaums’ house, which is based on the Belle Meade mansion. It’s already exciting when the Christmas tree grows large, but the great moment comes next: at a command from Drosselmeyer, all its lights suddenly burst on. Act 2, however, tips over too often into kitsch or garish color clashes, and the jolly-cartoon look of Sweetsville, even if the houses are based on Exposition buildings, keeps saying, “Don’t believe this.”On the other hand, the stage action itself starts with obvious problems, then improves. In this “Nutcracker,” parents and children keep disregarding each other, Drosselmeyer is more frequently left alone with the kids than is perhaps advisable, and grandparents keep upstaging Clara. Curiously, the more the story moves into fantasy here, the more real it becomes, and Sadie Bo Harris has a sparkle in the Sugar Plum solo that’s just right for the music.
