In 1969, Fidel Castro banned Christmas in Cuba. The country was declared atheist, and Santa a foreign import. Festivities were eventually reinstated when the Pope visited the island in 1998, but the young Carlos Acosta, growing up in 1980s Havana, never got to celebrate. He’s making up for it now with Nutcracker in Havana, which transplants the classic ballet from its usual snowy Germanic setting to sunny Cuba. It’s a savvy idea with popular appeal: very much still the recognisable Nutcracker – a trad, family-friendly show – just with added flavour.
At a little under two hours, including interval, there is no messing around. We get straight into some of the big tunes, and Clara (a charming, ever-beaming Laura Rodriguez) even reels off some fouettés in the first scene. Acosta just wants you to have a good time. What makes it all work is Pepe Gavilondo’s Cubanification of the original Tchaikovsky score – the most melodious in the ballet canon. A mark of the original’s greatness is how often and how well it has been adapted across styles, from Duke Ellington’s famed suite to last year’s brilliant jazz score by Cassie Kinoshi for Drew McOnie’s Nutcracker, and now this Latin makeover. In some scenes it’s played pretty straight, with the difference all in the orchestration: flutes, percussion, Cuban lute and tres guitar; elsewhere the music is cut loose from waltzes and marches and reborn with shifting, syncopated Cuban rhythms – the Nutcracker by way of Buena Vista Social Club. This is real dance music.
