The Red Shoes

[edjames]

I am looking forward to seeing this production Thursday night at City Center (thru Sunday)...

 

Review: All Life’s a Swirling Proscenium in ‘The Red Shoes’

By BRIAN SEIBERT OCT. 28, 2017

 

• The curtain doesn’t go up at the start of “The Red Shoes.” It’s already onstage, hanging from a gilded proscenium frame. It doesn’t stay still, either. To music that screams of Old Hollywood high drama and suspense, the frame and curtain roll toward the audience like a train threatening a head-on collision.The Red Shoes.”
  
• It’s already onstage, hanging from a gilded proscenium frame. It doesn’t stay still, either. To music that screams of Old Hollywood high drama and suspense, the frame and curtain roll toward the audience like a train threatening a head-on collision.
   
  Immediately establishing a tone of vintage, pass-the-popcorn entertainment, this is an apt prologue for Matthew Bourne’s ingenious dance adaptation of the 1948 Powell and Pressburger movie, which is (or once was) the most beloved ballet film ever. And at City Center on Friday, the second night of the show’s New York debut run, there was extra drama: The ballerina who stepped through that curtain wearing the red pointe shoes was Sara Mearns, of New York City Ballet, playing the heroine, Victoria Page, for the first time.
  

• 
  As it turned out, this local-hero casting, which also included American Ballet Theater’s Marcelo Gomes as Julian, the composer with whom Vicky falls in love, didn’t make a great deal of difference. The guests were good, and so was Mr. Bourne’s polished and professional company, New Adventures, but in this rendition of “The Red Shoes,” an award-winning hit in London last year, the staging is the star.
   
  
  Sara Mearns and Marcelo Gomes.CreditAndrea Mohin/The New York Times
  The plot is close to the movie’s. Vicky, a young ballerina, joins the troupe run by the tyrannical impresario Boris Lermontov, and her career soars until he, resenting her romance with the composer, kicks her out. Having to choose between art and love drives her mad.
   
  This is a story that continually shifts between onstage and backstage, shuttling between London and Monte Carlo. The production’s greatest strength is the set design by Lez Brotherston, who also designed the costumes. The mobile proscenium swivels and spins all through the show, switching point of view with such smooth speed you can almost feel the wind.
   
  

Smooth flow and swirling action are also the strengths of Mr. Bourne’s choreography and direction. This production moves. But besides the set, its chief cleverness lies in its choice of music, a collage clipped from various film scores by Bernard Herrmann. It’s the sound of “

” and Alfred Hitchcock, of high anxiety and romantic melodrama, with string sections desperately scaling musical cliffs and orchestral waves crashing.

 

Mr. Gomes as Julian Craster. CreditAndrea Mohin/The New York Times

The deftness with which Mr. Bourne (aided by the arranger Terry Davies) makes Herrmann’s musical moods and cues serve his story gives sustained delight. The shoe keeps fitting.

 

The production’s achievements, though, are tangled up with its flaws. Crucial plot points can get lost in the bustle and detail. And Mr. Bourne’s push for efficiency — making a dance number work both as period flavor and plot advancement, quickly slipping in a dramatic turning point in the middle of something else — can shortchange or skirt character motivation and decision making.

 

Mr. Bourne is a master of surface style, and the abundance and variety of pastiche dance — from the stiff, hoppy ridiculousness of aristocrats to awful music hall numbers to an ample survey of between-the-wars ballet — is another pleasure, especially for connoisseurs. Yet all this affectionate parody leaves him without much of a straight mode. The anguished danced monologues share the atmosphere of parody.

 

Ms. Mearns as Victoria Page. CreditAndrea Mohin/The New York Times

Meanwhile, the story has been streamlined and simplified, transformed into a standard love triangle. The tension in the film between Lermontov’s personal involvement and his principled objection to a ballerina’s marrying is absent. So is his religious devotion to ballet. Admittedly, these are difficult layers to convey without dialogue, but when Mr. Bourne has Lermontov moon over a statue of a shoe, the spiritual pursuit of beauty has been reduced to a foot fetish.

 

The show’s conception of Lermontov is characteristic of its swerving from the challenge of the film’s indelible performances. Anton Walbrook’s flamboyant portrayal of the impresario is, along with the saturated colors, the movie’s greatest glory. Sam Archer, who plays Lermontov in every New York performance of Mr. Bourne’s show, is dashing but subdued, buttoned-up British instead of larger-than-life Russian.

 

Despite Mr. Bourne’s tidying, he doesn’t take the opportunity to flesh out the love story between Vicky and Julian. As in the movie, it basically comes out of nowhere, though the thinness is more of a problem without a complicated Lermontov. Mr. Gomes, imparting Julian with his usual warmth and charisma, helped, but couldn’t redeem the role’s histrionic conducting. Ms. Mearns, out of her usual element, fit in fine, her sense of drama proving equal to the role’s acting demands, her performance only a tiny bit rougher than that of the first-cast Vicky, Ashley Shaw. (Ms. Mearns and Mr. Gomes, by the way, make an excellent couple: Company directors and casting agents take note.)

 

Where Mr. Bourne’s show most successfully breaks free of the original is in the “Red Shoes” ballet, the allegorical work that Lermontov and Julian make for Vicky. In a reverse homage to the movie’s surreal colors, Mr. Brotherston sticks to black and white and gray, and Mr. Bourne’s choreography finds its own stylized nightmare.

 

As for the rest, it can feel as conflicted as Vicky, not sure what movie it wants to be. Mr. Brotherston’s rotating set adroitly mixes up performance and rehearsal, art and life. When it stops spinning, it leaves you impressed and a little dizzy and not very moved.

[foxy]

I’m a big Matthew Bourne fan and have enjoyed all his previous ballets. Who can forget those male swans?

I’m seeing Red Shoes on November 4. In preparation I watched the film once again. So did Vicky fall or throw herself off that balcony? I look forward to your review.

[body2body]

I saw The Red Shoes in Los Angeles in September. I have enjoyed all of Bourne's theatrical Ballets. His Cinderella was one of the most thrilling experiences I've ever had in a theater. I enjoyed this production but agree with Mr Siebert's analysis. The simplification of the story makes a difference. Still, the production is exquisite. I particularly liked some of the references to some of the Ballet Russe works- The reference to Le Train Bleu (choreography by Bronislava Nijinska and Costumes by Chanel) was wonderful ( I think they call it Boulle à la Plage in the production). I would suggest that you avoid viewing the film until after seeing the Bourne production. When you do see the film get a copy of the beautifully restored edition done by the UCLA film institute.

[edjames]

LOVED IT! Sir Matthew has done it again. This production is spectacular. Great choreography, unbelievable music and wonderful performers.

It's a shame that it's a limited run and ends this weekend.

Had at the brief pleasure of meeting Sir Matthew at last night's show. Nice guy!

[foxy]

Agree with all of the positive reviews. Today is indeed the last day so unless you have a ticket you'll have to wait for another production and another time.

Yesterday Sir Matthew came out and gave a short speech and introduced students from the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts which was started by Tony Bennett. The students performed an original work with the help of some of the dancers from Bourne's company whose mission it is to aid and inspire young students in the performing arts. Certainly for those of us interested in the future of theater a very worthwhile cause.

After the performance some of the dancers were collecting money for Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS. I'm always happy to contribute and yesterday I got the pleasure of giving my donation (and getting a photo with) Marcelo Gomes who is performing in The Red Shoes and is also a principal dancer with ABT. Like Sir Matthew, a very nice guy.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=marcelo+gomes&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

[foxy]

From Bourne's Swan Lake. Fun to watch.

 

[N13]

Saw the production on Saturday night with Meers and Gomes. Unfortunately, I can only give it an 80 out of 100. The first act was really good, but it fell apart in the second act. Much too brief and without any real substance. It seemed to race to a conclusion that was not justified by what went before. The dancing was stylized and very good including the corps. I particularly enjoyed the premier danceur - it was one of only two performances during the run for him. I found the production a bit too fey. A little more serious demeanor would have served it better. It was more of a pastiche than a dramatic ballet. Overall - worth seeing and I do not resent the price I paid for my 4th row center seat.