With: The Joffrey Ballet at The Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress
Contact: 312-902-1500; $25-$130
Runs through: Oct. 15
BY CATEY SULLIVAN
The magic coach, the terror of midnight, the transformation from an ash-colored world of dreariness to one of gleaming vibrancy—they're all part of the Joffrey Ballet's opulent production of Sir Frederick Ashton's Cinderella.
This is not the Disneyfied Cinderella of matronly plump fairy godmothers and bibbity-bobbity-boo. Sergei Prokofiev's provocative score demands far more than simple sweetness and light. His music swirls with complexities through an immense range of emotions. There are towering chords of panic as the clock strikes 12 and Cinderella desperately tries to escape before she is trapped and exposed. There is bumptious merriment as the ugly stepsisters preen, prance and bicker. And there are the whisper-delicate final bars, romantic and hopeful as sunrise.
Musically, conductor Leslie B. Dunner and the Chicago Sinfonietta deliver the full spectrum. Visually, the Joffrey dancers do likewise.
Cinderella opens with an image of elegant whimsy, as a veil of a story-book cover rises to reveal the interior of stone cottage where a pair of eye-poppingly homely women stitch and simper over embroidery hoops.
Actually, they aren't women at all, but bravura Joffrey men Gary Chryst and Christian Holder, who come out of dancing retirement to play Cinderella's ugly stepsisters. ( David Gombert and Brian McSween play the roles at the Oct. 14 matinee. )
With uproarious comic appeal, Holder and Chryst all but steal the show right out from under Cinderella ( played by the doe-eyed, steel-muscled Maia Wilkins on opening night, with Victoria Jaiani, Suzanne Lopez and Julianne Kapley at some performances ) .
Holder—a fellow whose legs resemble tree trunks even covered in lacey pantaloons—is at least two feet taller and 50 pounds heavier than the sprightly Chryst. They play on their size differential to great effect, whether smacking each other aside while competing for noblemen or grabbing the biggest bouquet at the curtain call. They're perfect buffoons and foils to the exquisite, ethereal beauty of Cinderella and the gossamer-graceful spirits that attend her.
In addition to the fairy godmother, those lithe beings include the Fairies of Summer, Spring, Autumn and Winter. The first two are rejuvenation incarnate, all verdant green and floaty blossoms; the last two are evocations of skittering, fire-colored leaves and icy winds. It's Winter who ushers in the Act I finale with a breathtaking coach ( on loan from the Dutch National Ballet ) that seems fashioned from tinsel and crystal.
But the even the spectacle of the silver carriage is trumped by the soaring superball heights reached by Calvin Kitten's Jester ( John Gluckman at some performances ) as he leads the Prince's party-goers through their revels. And as the sighingly handsome Prince, Willy Shives ( with Michael Levine, Mauro Villaneuva and Temur Suluashvili playing the role at some performances ) is a velvet dancer who is confident, strong and beautiful—everything you could want in a prince.
