The Nutcracker at Aotea Centre

The Nutcracker. Picture / Maarten Holl

Like all ballets that tell stories, this little cracker takes a minute or 10 to warm up.

It starts quite small with one little girl excitedly examining the Christmas gifts stacked under the family Christmas tree.

Her Billy Bunter of a brother Fritz and Mum and Dad round out the domestic first scene.

Kristian Fredrikson's opening set, a 1920s living room, perches rather insignificantly and one-dimensionally mid-stage. It is meant to be "cartoonesque" but looks draughty with no sides.

The characters all dance around doing the happy family Christmas thing. It is not an eyeball-rattling beginning. Then Fritz gives Clara a good wham over the head with the nutcracker doll and we finally get down to business.

The rest of the action - gorgeous, lively, lyrical, great fun - takes place in the children's hospital where Clara is admitted for observation and liberally medicated by Sir Jon Trimmer's classic Matron.

The second act of the traditional Nutcracker sees Clara on a journey through the Land of the Sweets. But Gary Harris, director and choreographer, has given a new twist to that old tale and it makes a lot more sense.

All the wonderful things that happen are the product of Clara's concussed and medicated mind. It's a simple twist but opens up a world of possibilities, and both Harris, assistant choreographer Adrian Burnett and Fredrikson make the most of it.

Highlight: the Arabian dance in which the nurses' blue uniforms lose their crisp white collars and gain baggy pantaloons and veils. As a result the flirtation between a young doctor and nurse gains gorgeous, and exotic momentum. Chantelle Kerr and Michael Braun, take several bows.

Highlight: The hilarious Merlitons, in woolly dressing gowns, leg plasters and on crutches, who handle all the ballerina moves. Take a big bow Rowan Cann.

Highlight: The final grand pas de deux, with Mother and Father (Kate Venables and Craig Lord) giving it their all. Romantic ...

Highlight: Fredrikson's gorgeous and zesty colours, the flying bed with midnight blue streamers and the puffball snowflakes. The designer, who worked with the company over 42 years, died on November 10. Opening night in Auckland was dedicated to him.