Set Design: Al Riches
Costume Design: Wizzy Shawyer
Music Arranger: Gavin Sutherland
Presented by: Royal New Zealand Ballet
Canberra Theatre 1 – 4 February 2012
Reviewed by Bill Stephens
She’s an eight-year old mouse with a passion for ballet, and already she has a huge following among the littlies who rocked up to the Canberra Theatre in their hundreds, resplendent in all manner of sparkling tutu’s and tiaras.
The children of course know Angelina from her books and especially from her television series, and some of them had met her when she was at the Canberra Theatre a couple of years ago, in the English National Ballet’s charming production of “Angelina’s Star Performance”.
Of course, they also know her friends Alice and Charlotte, Naomi and the naughty Henry, all of whom attend Miss Lilly’s dance school with Angelina, and followed their every move with rapt attention, or gurgles of delight, even though not a word was spoken by the dancers throughout the entire performance.
This time round, the Royal New Zealand Ballet is touring a no-less- charming sequel, “Angelina Ballerina’s Big Audition” with Monica Lepisto quite delightful as Angelina. Designed to introduce children from 3 to 10 to the dance, this production tells of Angelina’s experiences when she is accepted to audition for a place in the prestigious Camembert Academy of Performing Arts.
The production is beautifully mounted with a pretty storybook setting which adheres to the look of Helen Craig’s original illustrations, cleverly designed and artfully lit so that it can quickly and magically morph from exteriors to interiors in the blink of an eye.
The costumes also are colourful and pretty, with each of the characters clearly delineated, so that the young audience know exactly which character they are looking at, even if they all wear very similar mouse heads.
Likewise the choreography, which is beautifully danced, includes many of the steps which would be familiar to those in the audience already attending dance classes, but with enough virtuoso passages to allow the dancers to impress more knowledgeable students.
For those not especially attracted to classical ballet, the audition sequence in the second act features several other dance styles including an hilarious interpretive dance with a large piece of cheese (Lily Cartwright), a dazzling tap dance with magic tricks and flags (Emma Findlay), an Irish jig (Jenny Nixon), some fiery flamenco (Nicholas Peak), some hot disco (Bridgett Letters-Peak), and an energetic hip-hop (Edward Fallon) which was clearly the audience favourite.
Happily Angelina danced her Sugar Plum Fairy solo beautifully which insured that she was accepted into the Camembert Academy.
As enchanting as it was for the target audience there were also many delightful surprises tucked in for the delectation of parents and grandparents in the audience, who would have noted, among them, the music from Tchkaivovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, cutely disguised for the audition sequences, and the cheeky costume references to “A Chorus Line” in the finale.
Judging from the many budding ballerina’s practicing their dance steps in front of the stage during interval, and as they left the theatre after the show, “Angelina Ballerina’s Big Audition” certainly provided plenty of inspiration for its target audience and older dance students as well as some charming entertainment for their dutiful parents and grandparents.
Photos by Patrick Baldwin
