Review: BOB BAKER'S NUTCRACKER at Bob Baker Marionette Theater

Bob Baker's Nutcracker marks my second time being blown away by the marionette theatre's superior artistry. The theatre is currently delivering a treat for all ages with their spunky rendition of Tchaikovsky's popular Christmas ballet, complete with a team of evil mice, gracefully dancing sugarplum fairies, a growing Christmas tree, and all manner of delightful surprises. If you have never been to BBMT, I will endorse that any show there is worth a visit. Preened and polished since 1963, they are experts on creating shows that will mystify and captivate the attentions of infants while still delighting grown-ups. The performances are crafted with the audience so intrinsically in mind that the entire hour seems to fly by in an instant. The institution stands as a reminder that, even children who have access to iPads are hushed with awe when a puppet is manipulated with strings and overwhelmed with delight when a puppet waves at them.

The Nutcracker as a narrative has its flaws, and I am not the first to point them out. It seems that anyone who really knows ballet will turn their nose up at the story, urging us instead to see the more dramaturgically-compelling works in the canon- Giselle or perhaps even Swan Lake. After all, after Clara and the Nutcracker Prince defeat the wicked Mouse King, the piece becomes more of a promenade than a story. BBMT's puppet version plays up the promenade aspect of the second act, but some of the more iconic story moments in the beginning are relayed by scratchy, dated narration rather than played out visually before us. Much of the narration is rhymed or sung in four part harmony and played on a fuzzy sound system which makes the otherwise lively performance seem like more of a relic from 1969, when the troupe originally performed this piece than a family-friendly, timeless treasure. I would love to see the show updated with re-recorded or re-mastered narration, and I (along with the 10 month old in front of me) could deal with one fewer solo piece performed by an old-fashioned fairy. I'm not advocating for a complete overhaul here: the jazzy renditions of Tchaikovsky's score are remarkably fun and modern and much of the narration is concise, but we lose a lot of it on the stere system in the theatre in its current state.

Daisy Hernandez' lighting makes bold attempts with a limited plot, but at times it feels like the lights are trying to hold our attention when a performance from 1969 might lose our modern attention spans. That said, the bones of the piece are airtight and need no help from the lights. The overture played by a shadow puppet orchestra, the procession of toys complete with a bear balancing on a ball, the rock band entirely made of candy: these are all moments that reel us back in and have us fully engaged in the performance. We appreciate the artistry during the "Waltz of the Flowers" and laugh along as the tin flutes become comically wobbly. There is so much good about the show, but in addition to my qualms with the soundtrack, moments were played so far upstage that they could not be seen from every vantage point in the house. An entire routine was performed with lights out of view of myself and the 10 month old in front of me. We were both pretty bummed! We'll chalk it up to adjusting to a new space with a pre-fabricated show.

I look forward to seeing more from BBMT and applaud their efforts in continuing to present quality marionette theatre for twenty-first century audiences. Any critiques I have of their Nutcracker are really splitting hairs and probably reflect how taken I was with their Halloween offering. I'll repeat my main takeaway here: any performance done by Bob Baker Marionette Theatre is a performance worth seeing.

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