A Dickens of a show

The Christmas ballet season officially began last night with Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker! at the Wells. Bourne has got his oar in early, well ahead of the other three Nutcrackers in London this year, yet in many ways, his version of the 19th century classic stands apart.

The reason is that although he retains elements of the original, his Nutcracker is less a ballet and more a danced pantomime, with as much drama and humour as conventional ballet steps. This draws critics and supporters in equal measure. Some say Bourne is more showman than dance maker, others love his larky storytelling and subversive take on the classics.

Either way, Bourne's Nutcracker! is a great family show. True, some of the dancing looks a little weak and amplifying the orchestra makes it sound pre-taped, but the show is funny and saucy, with brilliant designs and big musical numbers.

The Frozen Lake scene is especially good, with dry ice and snow flakes, and the cast gliding along with fixed grins and skirts aflutter.

As you would expect from the man who gave us a gender-bending Swan Lake, Bourne doesn't stick with the traditional family setting. Instead he goes for a grim Dickensian orphanage with thin gravy and bad plumbing. On Christmas Eve the miserly Dr Dross and his hateful wife steal the children's presents for their own brats, Sugar and Fritz, with the excellent Saranne Curtin and Ewan Wardrop playing the spiteful Sugar and the fat-faced Fritz.

The opening scenes start slowly, but they quickly gather pace when the children turn on the Drosses and escape to Sweetieland. This includes many of the best ideas, including lickable Liquorice Allsorts, in fact lickable just about everything (the smacking of lips is pleasingly loud). Bourne hilariously remakes the national dances, morphing the Chinese dance into Marshmallow Girls, a posse of air-headed It Girls, while his Knickerbocker Glory, aka the Arabian dance, becomes a disreputable lounge lizard with an evil eye on Clara (Etta Murfitt in need of some tights).

Because this is ballet, all ends well - Clara is reunited with her heartthrob (the manly Alan Vincent) and escapes the orphanage for ever. Bourne originally made Nutcracker! in 1992, and he recently said that revisiting the show was a chance to correct all his youthful mistakes. If anything, it's more a return to his earlier style when the magic and gentleness charmed us all.

Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker!