Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | D | Dance Magazine

New York City Ballet.

Article Excerpt
New York City Ballet New York State Theater, NYC April 24-June 24, 2007

This season the New York City Ballet celebrated the centenary of its co-founder Lincoln Kirstein. However, the big news was the company's new Romeo and Juliet, its third full-length ballet by artistic director Peter Martins and a bid to capture audiences too old for The Nutcracker but young enough to empathize with Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers--and to have some disposable income. The two-week run, which coincided with the end of the academic year at the area's many colleges and offered a limited number of $15 seats, may have been a craven exercise in marketing, but it paid off, with packed houses, standing ovations, and legions of 20-somethings at many performances.

Romeo and Juliet counted on Prokofiev's lush, emotionally manipulative score and bargain-basement grandeur to seduce new dancegoers. However, the clunky set by Per Kirkeby and hideous costumes by Kirkeby and Kirsten Lund Nielsen, the dramatic incoherence, generic choreography, stilted acting, and miscast, unconvincing principals only underscored the opportunism of the enterprise. Whole scenes go by without a telling piece of stage business or single resonant gesture....

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!