The Joffrey appears to have taken the old saw that Mercutio’s the real star of “Romeo and Juliet” to heart, casting the dazzlingly athletic Calvin Kitten in the role while offering the phlegmatic Willy Shives as Romeo. The choice has disastrous effects in this staging of John Cranko’s version. Cranko’s choreography and Prokofiev’s alternately sublime and bombastic score already threaten to bring the action to a halt. The bane of story ballets, uninspired busywork, frequently crops up, as when Juliet’s nurse (Deborah Dawn) engages in an extended and entirely unamusing search for the proper addressee of Juliet’s letter. At times, the Joffrey delivers its trademark elegant spectacle. Juliet’s initial dance with Romeo and the ensuing melee at the Capulet party is nicely done, even if the entire party sequence goes on interminably and Shives, in his eyemask, bears an unfortunate resemblance to Burt Ward’s Robin. Maia Wilkins dances Juliet with an ethereal grace and vigor. But the pivotal balcony scene lacks chemistry, and the marriage under the fairly creepy gaze of Friar Lawrence (Adam Sklute) fails to have much impact at all. The main story ends up getting lost, yielding to the spectacular vision of Verona’s marketplace, which apparently doubles as the land of the Sugar Plum Fairy. (John Beer)
Not Quixotic Enough: A Review of the Joffrey Ballet's "Don Quixote" at the Lyric Opera House Performance-wise, the Joffrey Ballet's production of Yuri Possokhov's “Don Quixote,” running through June 12 at the Lyric Opera House, is terrific, displaying the company’s trademark combination of sterling technique and dramatic flair. There’s not a false step (other than the pratfalls by the effete aristocrat, Gamache, played with clownish glee on six-inch heels by Fernando Duarte) or an inelegant line…
Complementary Opposites: A Preview of "Serenade" and "Of Mice and Men" by the Joffrey Ballet “Both [ballets] are trying to deal with a particular time: One by healing with the beauty of dance, the other by trying to create empathy for beaten-down humanity. Right now, we’re facing some of the same issues, such as huge migrations from the workplace. Steinbeck shone a light on his time, and I hope we’re able to do the same.”
