Adapted by the company
Noble Horse Theatre, 1410 N. Orleans St.
Phone: ( 312 ) 266-7878; $20-$48
( some meals included )
Through Jan. 8
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
Do little girls still ask Santa for ponies at Christmastime nowadays? I'm sure ponies were knocked off most children's Christmas lists long before accessorized iPods and Bratz dolls became readily available.
Still, if you know any small children still harboring equestrian fantasies, you would probably score some points by taking them to The Nutcracker on Horseback this holiday season.
Now in its second season at the Noble Horse Theatre, this horseback version of E.T.A. Hoffmann's fairy tale is a mixed bag at best. There are some dazzling gymnastic riding tricks by Sergey Latokhin as the dashing Nutcracker prince that make you fear for his life. Yet before those butt-clenching moments, you have to wade through a lot of bland and slow-paced staging that desperately needs to be sped up.
The basic plot is still there with Claire ( Lauren Zadina ) rescuing an enchanted Nutcracker prince. Only this time, the horses run rampant throughout.
Horse trainers Julius Von Uhl and Laura Steffe work the horses in as best they can, particularly in the Nutcracker's battle with the Rat King and the roster of tricks incorporated as Sugarplum Fairyland treats.
But whenever the horses aren't on, it's a lot of inconsistent pantomime with a medicated-sounding pre-recorded narrator.
Traditionalists may be dismayed to have taped selections of Tchaikovsky's ballet score juggled around or even aghast when it's completely jettisoned for the best riding tricks involving Russian Cossacks ( to a techno beat ) and the comic horse humiliation of Baron Munchausen ( a welcome bit of imported humor ) .
I'm not qualified enough to judge the quality level of the other horse tricks like a pack trotting in unison or being commanded to walk in diagonals. It looks like it should be more impressive, but to someone inexperienced with riding horses, it's hard to say if the accomplishments are of a high level or not.
In our modernized day and age, we are removed from our most common 19th century form of transportation. So it's somewhat refreshing to reconsider this while watching The Nutcracker on Horseback. The show itself may not be a dream of professionalism, but it's certainly fun to see kids' eyes light up as they get the chance to see and touch the lined-up curtain-call horses at the end.