Nutcracker at the Tuff Nutt Jazz Club London Reviews

"A Christmas cracker with a sweet and jazzy twist"

"It’s Nutcracker, dance fans, but not as we know it. There’s no Clara and no jolly Christmas Eve party to delight the children. Instead, the Tuff Nutt Jazz Club, a cosy new venue underneath the Royal Festival Hall, is offering an abbreviated — only an hour long — jazz-inspired rewrite for Christmas. And it’s heaps of fun."

"The choreographer Drew McOnie has fashioned a heartfelt comedy centred around young Clive, who lives in a bedsit with his single-parent dad, a man too preoccupied with money worries to enter into the festive spirit. His father’s gift to his son is an Action Man doll, but Clive would rather dance with the lady fairy doll on top of their sad little Christmas tree."

"The composer Cassie Kinoshi has written a terrific score for a four-piece jazz band that embraces the familiar Tchaikovsky melodies but casts them — courtesy of saxophone and drums especially — in an entirely different light. The capering choreography swings as much as the music and it’s amazing how many twists and twirls — jetés even too! — McOnie manages to fit into such a limited performing space."

"The hard-working cast of six, who constantly change costumes in the blink of an eye, dance up a storm, led by Mark Samaras, who is wonderfully endearing and wide-eyed as Clive. Patricia Zhou is an adorable Sugar Plum, while Amonik Melaco’s Action Man is all heart beneath the testosterone."

"A Christmas dream of love that goes with a swing"

"A hunky Action Man opens up a sequin-clad life for the protagonist of Drew McOnie’s jazzy, out-and-proud take on Tchaikovsky’s ballet"

"The run-up to Christmas means Nutcracker season in the dance world, but here’s one that veers away from the conventional narrative into a joyful celebration of identity and the dream of being and loving whoever you wish."

"First things first, the music is brilliant... here composer Cassie Kinoshi rewrites it for now, played live by a quartet, the heady sound of the London jazz scene but with those familiar tinkly melodies threaded through the layers, reinvented and revoiced"

"The energy is projected outward, legs flung high, big clear shapes, easy flowing phrases. It’s a different experience being so up-close that you can smell the dancers (fragrant, since you asked), but they don’t use the intimacy in a dramatic way. It could’ve been an opportunity to find some introspection"

"But this is not really a show about subtlety. Ryan Dawson Laight’s fab costumes set the tone, in saturated colours and a truckload of sparkle, zhuzhed-up ski-wear for the Waltz of the Snowflakes and superhero hot pants."

"Steps-wise it’s not McOnie’s most inventive choreography and he and the dancers – including the excellent Chanelle Anthony and ballet dancer Patricia Zhou – are stymied by the space, but somehow by the end they’ve made it work."

"Deft and witty interpretation of a Christmas classic"

"Cassie Kinoshi’s arrangement of Tchaikovsky deftly drives the story forwards, weaving in themes and giving them a different twist"

"Drew McOnie’s new spin on Christmas classic The Nutcracker has a cabaret setting and a warm heart."

"Cassie Kinoshi’s arrangement of Tchaikovsky deftly drives the story forwards, weaving in themes and giving them a different twist: the Sugar Plum is driven by the rhythm section, while these smaller forces still make the transformation music feel mighty."

"As Clive, Samaras combines innocence with ardent dancing, eagerly throwing himself into every number. Melaco’s Action Man starts out with a hint of menace, then softens into sweetness. Zhou’s Sugar Plum has a friendly warmth, keeping her rapport with Samaras whether she’s a fairy on the tree or a slinky cabaret act. Tim Hodges deftly sketches the dad’s frustrations and good intentions."

"For the snow scene, everybody has quilted, feather-trimmed ski outfits. Then they come back with glittery leaf-blowers, ready to clean up the fallen snow. It’s a characteristic moment for this show: deft, witty, and unexpectedly practical."

"Drew McOnie's new classic is naughty but nice"

"The first Nutcracker of the year, in the director-choreographer's hands, becomes sultry, clever and a real Christmas treat"

"Christmas is coming – don’t fight it. And this welcoming new Nutcracker would be a treat at any time, in a snug pop up jazz club tucked at the back of the Royal Festival Hall. It’s a tight fit in the cosy orange space designed by Soutra Gilmour – we sit up close to sweat and sequins. Impressively, the swirling dancers don’t knock anyone’s drinks over."

"The Nutcracker is always a subsumed sexual awakening, implicitly giving its young heroine a glimpse of adult romance around the corner – but McOnie lets the ballet be horny on main. In Dreamland, Clive reappears in a sheeny short cape and shorter shorts."

"Jazz composer Cassie Kinoshi gives the score a sultry, intimate makeover, played by a quartet in pjs. Tchaikovsky’s melancholy melodies respond well to smoky-note saxophone and his sassy rhythms to double bass and drumkit."

"London’s first Nutcracker of the season is not big, but it is clever – cute and compact as a Terry’s chocolate orange."

"A radically reimagined warm embrace of a show"

"Starring Action Man and a boy called Clive, Drew McOnie’s immersive cabaret version of the festive ballet is up there with reinventions by Mark Morris and Matthew Bourne"

"... Drew McOnie’s Nutcracker, an up close and personal cabaret version with a radically imagined and knockout score by Cassie Kinoshi, played by a superb four-piece jazz band in the intimate pop-up space beneath London’s Royal Festival Hall with general cheer."

"The choreography is slick and clever. The variations are inspired by the colours of the drinks Action Man is sipping, which conjure figures such as a red satin-clad pair of tango dancers who slink across the floor, a languorous woman in orange chiffon and a wild yellow figure in a little hat who pirouettes with eye-catching speed. The dancers – six of them, working extraordinarily hard – rise to every jeté and finely shaped duet. It’s an immersive experience seeing them so close, and one that holds you in a very warm embrace."

"Drew McOnie’s fun-size Nutcracker is a treat"

"The choreographer rethinks the classic ballet at London’s Southbank Centre with a handful of dancers and a jazz score"

"... it’s terrific: fast-moving, witty and zestily danced."

"McOnie sidesteps odious comparisons by using a bold rearrangement of the score by jazz composer Cassie Kinoshi."

"Mark Samaras is utterly persuasive as the unhappy youngster and powers impressively through his duets with Zhou and Melaco and McOnie works miracles with the minuscule stage. His tiny ensemble mimic skaters with their gliding chassés in the snow scene (shades of Frederick Ashton’s Les Patineurs) and solos are generously distributed including a whirling skirt dance to a slo-mo danse espagnole for Chanelle Anthony."

"Drew McOnie’s very camp, very fun jazz reworking of Tchaikovsky’s ballet, performed in a pop-up speakeasy"

"If you’re looking for a camp Christmas show, this is for you. With sexy snowflakes, some very tiny shorts, and a gender-non-conforming action man, ‘Nutcracker’ at the Tuff Nut Jazz Club (aka the Southbank Centre) is a snowstorm of fun. Just be wary of cringe."

"I was slightly startled by the overzealous grins of the dancers as they boinged onto the stage. In a venue where you’re close enough to smell the performers’ sweat, it was disconcerting to have six sets of pearly gnashers in my face. There were also moments when I was terrified they were going to kick the audience or fling themselves into the ceiling. All hats off to them for navigating such a tiny stage with no injuries, seriously."

"Mark Samaras, who gave a sweet and earnest performance. Meanwhile, with his clenched fists and toylike torso twists, Amonik Melaco’s entrance as Action Man is brilliant. The rest of his performance is surprisingly innocent, if not a little stiff, but I guess that comes with the territory of playing a doll."

"Zippily reimagined"

"Jazz-fuelled rainbow reinterpretation adds a twist to the classic Christmas ballet"

"There is nothing subtle about a Drew McOnie production, and his spin on the Nutcracker story is no exception. Think light entertainment pizzazz in the style of a Sunday evening"

"... the Tuff Nutt Jazz Club, a pop-up venue created underneath the Royal Festival Hall, is minuscule – two banks of seats with cabaret-style tables for the front rows leave a narrow strip for the dancers where there is barely room to swing a cat, let alone pull off a grand jeté. When they start adding props, you can’t help but worry that someone is going to take a tumble over the furniture."

"The six performers are excellent. The Matthew Bourne dancer Mark Samaras, as Clive (a late replacement for an injured Sam Salter), is transfixing – wide-eyed, boyishly delighted and technically superb. Amonik Melaco’s Action Man is both brawnily hunky and shyly vulnerable. Ballet dancer Patricia Zhou is a winningly classy Sugar Plum Fairy."

"There’s an awful lot of cheese here, though, and Ryan Dawson Laight’s costumes are exuberantly OTT – notably Samaras’ tiny, shiny, super-tight superhero costume. But it is a brashly fun alternative to the usual Nutcracker experience."