Romeo and Juliet: Shakespeare's classic tale of star-crossed lovers. A beautifully tragic story for all of New York's cynical romantics on Valentine's day weekend. I've always loved Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet score and have seen and enjoyed multiple performances with MacMillen's choreography, so I was excited to see how City Ballet's would compare. Unfortunately, the performance didn't live up to my Romeo and Juliet expectations.
The choreography was over-dramatic and didn't fully fill the music, and the staging felt either empty or overcrowded, depending on the scene. The one set piece impressively transformed from Juliet's bedroom to the balcony to the monastery and finally the Capulet's tomb, but was bulky and distracting. The balcony scene, always a favorite, didn't have the expressive passionate quality of MacMillen's and didn't take advantage of the building romance in the music. At the end of the performance, I felt neither moved nor saddened by the families discovering their dead children in the tomb.
Despite this harsh critique, I actually quite enjoyed the performance. Sterling Hyltin made the most perfect Juliet: tiny and vulnerable, making the most complicated lifts appear effortless. Her acting pulled me in and she was completely believable as a young girl struggling against her parent's demands and her new-found sexuality. Robbie Fairchild was unimpressive, but Daniel Ulbricht was an outstanding Mercutio, tackling many jumps and a dramatic death scene.
Overall, while it wasn't the best Romeo and Juliet I've seen, I'm glad I went. The music alone would have been worth it. And I love a good tragedy on Valentine's day.
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