I really would like a regular Bolshoi attendee's view of this. My guess would be that it would be along the lines of "Where's the ballet?". There has to be a point where a re-staging of a classic to a modern idiom is such that it is no longer the same thing. Don't get me wrong Bourne's Nutcracker is a wonderful piece of eye candy and the reframing of the story is of benefit. The choreography is imaginative and pleasing but there is so little ballet in this production that this is one instance, IMHO, where it doesn't do "what it says on the bottle".

I wasn’t expecting a ballet of any kind but I was expecting a good BOV production. This years Christmas production ‘The Nutcracker’ was really disappointing. I’ve never felt like this before but it was underwhelming, strange, confusing and we just didn’t enjoy it on any level. Reduced me to a fit of the giggles in the second half and several audience members chose to dip out during the interval. I am baffled by all the good reviews. I’ve seen a lot of good theatre and this wasn’t up there!