Dany Margolies – Arts In LA
In the good old days, Sleeping Beauty was a ballet choreographed, in its first incarnation, by Marius Petipa. In it, we meet Princess Aurora, first in a prologue when she is a baby—represented by a doll, or more likely a bundle of cloth—swaddled beyond recognition and housed in a froufrou cradle upstage, then, in Act One, as a 16-year-old who meets and by Act Three marries Prince Désiré.
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Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA
With its Gothic theme, reflected in lavish costuming and majestic sets (both elements designed by Lez Brotherston), and a lush score by Tchaikovsky, “Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty” promises to be a magical evening of fairy tale and ballet. Instead, on Thursday night LA audiences were presented with cacophonous and insultingly unsubtle show that suffers from heavy-handed, exaggerated gestures and uninspired, pedestrian choreography—more synchronized movement than dance. Minus the grace and ethereal nature of classical ballet and the sensitivity of a live orchestra, “Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty” is a braying and disappointingly earthbound production. Read more…
Now running through December 1.