Nutcracker review, Tuff Nutt Jazz Club: 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

Amonik Melaco in ‘Nutcracker’ (Mark Senior)

Drew McOnie’s new spin on Christmas classic The Nutcracker has a cabaret setting and a warm heart. With six dancers and a five-piece jazz band, it updates the action to a 1970s world of crochet blankets and light-entertainment dreams, where everyone finally gets the chance to embrace their inner Sugar Plum Fairy.

The whole pop-up venue is part of Soutra Gilmour’s set design. The audience sits around the sunburst-patterned dancefloor, while the pink-and-orange zigzag wallpaper wraps right around the space. The band, dressed in pyjamas, feel like part of the action.

As in traditional Nutcrackers, it’s a child’s adventure on Christmas Eve, with dolls coming to life and whisking the protagonist off to a fantasy adventure. The traditional Clara becomes Mark Samaras’s wide-eyed Clive, a boy whose dad disapproves when he plays with a Sugar Plum doll rather than his Action Man. Across the story, it’s a question of whether Clive and Amonik Melaco’s Action Man can hug or only shake hands, while Melaco and Patricia Zhou’s Sugar Plum both switch between camouflage and froufrou skirts.