Rick Nelson and Claude Peck dispense unasked-for advice about clothing, etiquette, culture, relationships, grooming and more.
CP: Pray tell me what has sent you through icy streets at night, year in and year out, to see Ballet of the Dolls' "Nutcracker (not so) Suite"? I know that "Balanchine" is not the answer.
RN: Because it's hilarious — something no one ever says about any "Nutcracker," ever — and ingenious, full of ballet in-jokes, great music and killer performances. I'm thrilled that James Sewell Ballet is presenting it, with Dolls founder/choreographer Myron Johnson at the helm and in the cast. The show looked good on the big Cowles Center stage, didn't it?
CP: Yep. It's the local version of an off-off-Broadway show taking a No. 1 train uptown. I missed the hooting and cheering of the old Ritz Theater crowd, though. I think wine sales were bigger there.
RN: What a treat to see Kevin McCormick back — after, what, a decade? — poured into form-fitting Ginger Grant-wear and wisecracking up a storm as Momma. He still has the best legs — and the best timing — in the business.
CP: No one brandishes a foot-long cigarette holder like he-she can. I thought Momma was gonna go all Joan Crawford on Marie when she caught her trying on one of her Balenciaga gowns.
RN: That's when I missed the voiced-over narration of old. Right around that point, when the dramaturgy goes totally Kooksville — you know, Myron as the Funny Uncle, tied up by the evil Rat Queen but still able to blithely toss off the Watusi — you'd hear, "Is this still 'The Nutcracker'?" It always got a big laugh, trust me.
CP: I liked how the Sewell version ramped up the dance and scaled back the boring, repetitive presentational stuff that weakened it in recent years. Then, of course, there is La Fellner.
