Sleeping Beauty wakes up a little creaky, but wait till she's had some coffee!

Since I've been babbling about the American Ballet Theatre's "The Sleeping Beauty" in excited anticipation, I thought I'd share my Newsday review.

A bunch of critics aren't liking this production. The complaints have centered around the relation between the canonical material and the new interpolations--that the effect is too much of a stylistic mishmash.

I find that hard to judge: for critics and devoted balletgoers, the canonical material is so much more familiar that ANYTHING else will likely seem glaring and weird. Even when I squint, I'm not sure what it would look like if I didn't have various other versions dancing in my head. Once I've seen it more times, it will either establish entire dominion over my imagination--or not. Really can't tell now.

Also--and somehow I didn't manage to adequately explain this in my review--part of the beauty of this version is the way it shifts keys, suddenly descending into a gluey dream-time and a different quality of movement. You can call that a stylistic mishmash or you can call it magic--or can once the timing is better. The production is still working itself out technically, with currently enough comic glitches to pull you out of whatever state of mind it's working toward. I have faith they'll figure all this out--though probably not until next year.

[A month later.... a more complete, and sober, reflection on the ABT "Sleeping Beauty"]