Come young, come old, come all ye faithful and see The Hard Nut, Mark Morris’s version of The Nutcracker, which he brilliantly choreographed to the immortal Tchaikovsky score for his Mark Morris Dance Group, breaking all the conventions of the ballet except the really important ones. Those would be, and still are, a heartfelt story, delicious costuming and sets, and thoroughly engaging dancing, with terrific dancers to take it all on.
The Hard Nut premiered in Belgium, where Morris and company were in residence, in January 1991. And that was a long, long time ago, children, but fortunately here comes someone old to tell you all about it, having attended Friday night’s opening at Zellerbach Hall, where Cal Performances brings The Hard Nut, still radiantly alive, to new generations and old through December 24. It was last seen here four years ago, stretching its usual two-year interval to the point where Hard Nut nuts may have had to turn to the DVD (on sale, BTW, in the lobby, along with souvenir tees and sippy cups) just to maintain their insanity quotient.
For its eternal verities aside, The Hard Nut is gloriously nutty. Set in some Charles Burns cartoony wonderworld (the production is based on his work), Adrianne Lobel’s black-and-white graphics compete with Martin Pakledinaz’s brightly op-pop ’60s costuming to their mutual enhancement.
The Stahlbaum household — Dr. Stahlbaum (Morris), Mrs. Stahlbaum (John Heginbotham); kids Marie (Lauren Grant), Fritz (Brian Lawson), and (added starter!) libidinous teenager Louise (Lesley Garrison), and their housekeeper/nurse (Brandon Rudolph) — hang out in their modern living room, watching black-and-white TV and awaiting their party guests, whom they ply with Technicolor cocktails. The kids’ presents under the big-balled black and white tree include Barbie (Elisa Clark), a robot (Spencer Ramirez), and a G.I. Joe doll. The robot rips Barbie’s arm clean off, and Fritz breaks Marie’s nutcracker, which she’s just received from the magician Drosselmeier (Billy Smith). The guests boogie, enjoy a stoned stroll, do the Bump (don’t ask), the waltz, the polka, and of course the Hokey Pokey. Party on!
The tree and furniture, true to most Nutcrackers, grow huge. G.I. Joes multiply into a platoon of five, battling the rats, led by their king (Utafumi Takemura). The victorious Nutcracker, young Drosselmeier (Aaron Loux), becomes Marie’s suitor and partner.
Only Lauren Grant (Marie), John Heginbotham (Mrs. Stahlbaum/Queen) and Mark Morris (Dr. Stahlbaum/ King) have been present since the ’90s. Grant, who joined the company in 1996, seemingly grows more elfinly buoyant each year. She has lost not a step in the crucial Marie role, the embodiment of the all-encompassing love that binds this modern classic together. The ballet is further enhanced by the live music present in all of Morris’s ballets, furnished here by the Berkeley Symphony and the East Bay Children’s Choir Ensemble under the baton of Colin Fowler.
Morris has graduated from the Afro-coiffed party guest — who arrives onstage from the bathroom with a bit of toilet paper stuck to his shoe — to his current grandeur, which conveniently lets him keep watch from the stage much of the time. (He also, in olden times, was swathed in blue chiffon for the Arabian dance, where he moved smoothly, seductively and — allegedly — without underwear.)
Today’s gender openness did not prevail in 1991, when there was hilarity and shock value in the unisex tutued Snowflakes, and in the drag role of Mrs. Stahlbaum/Queen, leading the rather racy Waltz of the Flowers. But now as then, these are crucial centerpieces in Morris’s ballet, and they go forward just as they have for years, snowflakes in happy flight, flowers slouching toward revelatory joy.
Interestingly, today’s #Me too moment and movement has done nothing to alter the audience’s reactions, except, said Executive Director Nancy Umanoff, the other night, when one of the groping/grabbing male guests in the ribald party scene got socked by the woman he was hitting on — and the audience cheered.
