THE title of Peter Martins’ “Romeo + Juliet,” which premiered Tuesday night, tells it all: innovation for the sake of itself, and the facile appearance of novelty.
Martins has taken a purely classical approach to Sergei Prokofiev’s music, as did Frederick Ashton in his 1955 version for the Royal Danish Ballet (a revival in which Martins himself appeared).
Unlike Ashton, however, Martins doesn’t use the classic vocabulary with genius – few do – and the results here are odd, undramatic and anemic. He’s omitted the character of Rosaline, only mentioned in Shakespeare but essential in dance, since Romeo’s lovesick misery at the beginning is unaccountable otherwise.
Apart from the sluggish performance of the orchestra under Fay?al Karoui, the production’s saddled with a hideously unsuitable set by the Danish abstract painter Per Kirkeby that changes from street scene to ballroom, bedroom to tomb, and features what looks like a Stone Age cottage with fire-escape steps on one side for the balcony duet.
The Capulets (in fire-engine red costumes) are only dimly dramatized, and the elder Montagues (in green and blue) don’t appear at all. The street scenes become a mere semblance of ballet classes, and the only subsidiary characters invested with any depth of feeling are Friar Laurence played by Nicolaj Hubbe, the feisty Mercutio of Daniel Ulbricht, and the surly Tybalt of Joaquin De Luz.
Much emphasis has been placed on the youth of the dancers Martins selected for his star-cross’d lovers. Although he initially wanted age-appropriate dancers from the company’s School of American Ballet, in fact his first choice fell on a 21-year-old soloist, Sterling Hyltin, and 19-year-old corps dancer, Robert Fairchild.
They had good things to dance, and both, particularly Fairchild, did them well. But age is a funny thing: When Margot Fonteyn first danced Juliet, she was nearly 46 – yet she made a more convincing 14-year-old than the somewhat blank-faced Hyltin.
Don’t take my word for it. Rent the DVD.
ROMEO + JULIET
New York City Ballet at New York State Theater, Lincoln Center; (212) 870-5570. Season runs through June 24.