Nutcracker review, Tuff Nutt Jazz Club: Deft and witty interpretation of a Christmas classic

Drew McOnie’s new spin on Christmas classic The Nutcracker has a cabaret setting and a warm heart. With six dancers and a five-piece jazz band, it updates the action to a 1970s world of crochet blankets and light-entertainment dreams, where everyone finally gets the chance to embrace their inner Sugar Plum Fairy.

The whole pop-up venue is part of Soutra Gilmour’s set design. The audience sits around the sunburst-patterned dancefloor, while the pink-and-orange zigzag wallpaper wraps right around the space. The band, dressed in pyjamas, feel like part of the action.

As in traditional Nutcrackers, it’s a child’s adventure on Christmas Eve, with dolls coming to life and whisking the protagonist off to a fantasy adventure. The traditional Clara becomes Mark Samaras’s wide-eyed Clive, a boy whose dad disapproves when he plays with a Sugar Plum doll rather than his Action Man. Across the story, it’s a question of whether Clive and Amonik Melaco’s Action Man can hug or only shake hands, while Melaco and Patricia Zhou’s Sugar Plum both switch between camouflage and froufrou skirts.

Cassie Kinoshi’s arrangement of Tchaikovsky deftly drives the story forwards, weaving in themes and giving them a different twist: the Sugar Plum is driven by the rhythm section, while these smaller forces still make the transformation music feel mighty.

McOnie’s choreography is a mix of contemporary dance with music theatre, ballroom and Latin, and a Matthew Bourne-like approach to dance narrative. A final spoken section spells out the moral, but isn’t needed – McOnie could trust his own movement storytelling.

As Clive, Samaras combines innocence with ardent dancing, eagerly throwing himself into every number. Melaco’s Action Man starts out with a hint of menace, then softens into sweetness. Zhou’s Sugar Plum has a friendly warmth, keeping her rapport with Samaras whether she’s a fairy on the tree or a slinky cabaret act. Tim Hodges deftly sketches the dad’s frustrations and good intentions.

open image in gallery

McOnie weaves in different styles for the divertissement numbers. Chanelle Anthony’s Orange is a standout, a whirl of bright chiffon and grounded, rippling moves. Christie Crosson and Hodges flip from one flirty identity to the next.

Ryan Dawson Laight dresses the cast in a parade of witty costume changes, as bright and tactile as Quality Street wrappers. For the snow scene, everybody has quilted, feather-trimmed ski outfits. Then they come back with glittery leaf-blowers, ready to clean up the fallen snow. It’s a characteristic moment for this show: deft, witty, and unexpectedly practical.

Until 6 January. southbankcentre.co.uk