"Romeo and Juliet"
American Ballet Theatre
Opera House
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
January 28 & 29, 2010
by Jean Battey Lewis
copyright 2010 by Jean Battey Lewis
Romeo and Juliet are the greatest lovers and the greatest gift to dance of any drama on the stage today. Their story has spawned over a dozen 20th Century ballets. One of the most successful versions, created by Britain's Sir Kenneth MacMillan and danced this week by American Ballet Theatre, has been drawing powerful performances and extraordinarily enthusiastic crowds here this week.
The story is complex: young love, bloody rivalries, family loyalties, messages not received, a double suicide. Seemingly too much intricate detail to stuff into a ballet, but of course part of its power is we're already familiar with the plot. Of all the love stories in the world, Romeo and Juliet's is the most famous. From Shakespeare on we have frequently encountered this tale - seen it acted, heard it sung and watched it danced. Perhaps no other medium but dance is so able to capture that sweet, sad essence, underscored by the dancers' innately beautiful and expressive bodies.
"Romeo and Juliet" as dance has almost an embarrassment of riches, including the strong dramatic score by Sergei Prokofiev, surely the finest created in the 20th Century for a full-length ballet. One reason the McMillan version is such a pre-eminent one is because of another contribution that makes this "Romeo and Juliet" unique: the voluptuous costumes and handsome, complex, soaring architectural settings by Nicholas Georgiadis that bring extra drama and opulence to the stage. The designer's panoply of scenes - eight in all - frames the action and includes a towering three-level marketplace with steep staircases to maneuver, plus the multiple, complicated sets of the Friar's sanctuary, Juliet's bedroom, and the tomb with its stylized gargoyles.
The challenges of all this visual splendor were more than met by ABT's dancers led by the two couples I saw in the title roles - Julie Kent and Marcelo Gomez the first night, Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg the second.
Kent's Juliet was a miracle of fluid, headlong daring, her exceptionally pliant body moving with tender longing and whip-sharp ecstasy. Gomez made a vivid, appealing Romeo - headstrong in his pursuit of Juliet and manly in his clean, plush dancing. Both of them were wonderfully abandoned in the balcony scene with Juliet flinging herself down the perilous, curving staircase.
Murphy's Juliet was younger, less complex, but appealing in its innocence and vitality. David Hallberg brought elegance and authority to his strong performance.
The ballet has rich character roles. Herman Cornejo was a standout as Mercutio on opening night, a meaty part that calls for brilliant dancing and a dramatic death. In the fairly thankless role of Tybalt, Gennadi Saveliev was a proper monster - it must be hard to know that the more convincingly you are a villain the less likely you'll get a hearty round of applause.
The role of Friar Laurence used to be performed by Frederic Franklin, former star of the Ballet Russe and the National Ballet, who still occasionally dances character parts. Now based in New York, he no longer travels with the company and his spot-on performances are missed.
The crowd scenes and especially the fierce clash of swords in the heated exchanges between Capulets and Montagues are snappily staged - although this time, for some reason, performed with more derring-do the first night than the second.
Amid all the bouquets for this inspired "Romeo and Juliet" one strong complaint remains: the endless, mostly dull dancing in the crowd scenes of Act 2, and especially the interminable, boring choreography of the three - but it seems like a battalion - of harlots. Does the MacMillan Estate insist on its inclusion? If not, off with its head!
An interesting touch to ABT's curtain calls: when Murphy and Hallberg came out for their final bows, they stood clinging to each other as waves of applause swept over them from the enraptured audience - two souls lost in eternity, this taking leave an integral part of their performance. The audience departed not only having witnessed remarkable dancing, but with an after-image to sustain their memories.
