A candy-coloured cracker

New back in 2002, English National Ballet's current Nutcracker works all these charms, even if Christopher Hampson's choreography is a little weak and utterly overshadowed by Gerald Scarfe's famous designs.

The acid-quilled satirist has created a gobstopper-bright, candy-coloured world, with a cartoon family full of smiling eccentrics in wacky outfits.

There's the gawky maid transformed into a vamp, a kilt-swishing, zimmerframe-wielding Grandpa, and his rejunvenative girlfriend Ms V Aggra, and a governess so stern one look would crumble granite. There are also the maddest of hats, some sensational striped suits, and hairstyles so wild and hair colours so neon that you're squinting at their megawatt brilliance.

All this, and the icicles and Jack Frosts jumping out of the fridge, make for a rollicking first half, which ends with Clara setting off on her journey to the Kingdom of the Sweets.

Some productions attempt to reconcile the all-acting first half and all-dancing second, usually with ideas of risk and reward, but the ENB production just has the family knees-up in one and the steps in the other. And, if you can accept that, ENB's production is a winner.

At last night's first night, the company's dancers were on good form, with Maria Kotchetkova an appealing Clara, Dmitri Gruzdyev a noble Nutcracker/ Prince, and Daria Klimentová a perfectly placed Sugar Plum Fairy.

Klimentová is one of those underrated dancers you wonder why you don't see
more of. She has a lovely line, and a brilliant spin, and a softly-softly way of pointing her feet.

Fabian Reimair gave a respectable performance as Drosselmeyer, in this production an Elvis lookalike, although his acting is uneven, along with his on-stage presence.

However, top marks to Begona Cao in the Arabian fan dance, Yat-Sen Chang as the Russian bear, and the women in the Mirlitons. With slinky black tights, shiny black pointe shoes and dizzyingly striped tutus, they whirled before your eyes until they blurred.

The only drawback with this Nutcracker, apart from a few signs of wear and tear to the sets, is that it doesn't really acknowledge the melancholy in Tchaikovsky's music.

Nutcracker is not just a kiddiepleaser, or a picture of harmony and happiness. It is also a reminder to the grown-ups that things don't always work out, and that our childhood ideals are long-since lost.

Until 1 January. Information: 0870 145 0200.

English National Ballet: The Nutcracker