I saw the Saturday night (12/1) Peck/Gordon Sugar Plum PDD, with Erica Pereira replacing Tess Reichlen as Dew Drop. Reichlen is still listed as performing tonight's Dew and SPF on the 14th, so my fingers are crossed that she is not injured. The other announced casting change was that Emma von Enck replaced Lily Frances Cosgrove as Harlequin in the party scene. As balanchinette mentioned, there were a few mishaps--though they were not quite as egregious as it seems they were opening night! In the battle scene, Marie's shoe missed the mouse king, and while he (Farley) still jumped and pointed at it on the floor, the action was missed by my non-balletgoing friend who was at the Nutcracker for the first time. Besides that, Tenzin Niles and Ines Gout were delightful--I missed Niles' prince last year, but saw his pantomime on the NYT Speaking in Dance feature, and he is just as princely and lyrical as he seems both in last year's video and in this fall's NYT feature on the two princes.
Tiler Peck's variation at the beginning of Act II was stunning, though (in the second mishap of the evening for the youth cast) an angel fell getting into line at the front of the stage just after she finished dancing. The divertissements had some highs and lows, in my book. I thoroughly enjoyed Meaghan Dutton O'Hara's Hot Chocolate, but found Georgina Pazcougin's Coffee underwhelming. For an indulgent and luxurious piece, she seemed a little rushed and unsure of herself, and her command of the bells/chimes was not as musical as it could be. Both Claire and Emma Von Enck danced in Marzipan, and it was really interesting to see the two side-by-side in a featured role. I particularly enjoyed the evening's lead flowers--Laine Habony and Mary Elizabeth Sell (Habony, from her public facing Instagram, was the flower responsible for rescuing the shoe on opening night as mentioned earlier in the thread)--and they made me forget my disappointment in missing Tess Reichlen's performance. Peck and Gordon were stunning in the PDD--though I'll be interested to see them once they've performed it a few more times, it was the sort of magic you hope to be reminded of when attending the Nutcracker. Gordon--who has been flawless in the solo portions of his roles I've seen this fall--did stumble a bit at the end of a turn sequence, and overall, the pas was not as seamless as some of Peck's work I've seen recently with other partners, but I also had the chance to see her with Joaquin De Luz numerous times this fall, and that is quite the high bar! It seemed like they were both a bit hesitant on the shoulder sits, but their pas still felt pretty close to perfection.
I'm hoping to get tickets to one more performance--I'd love to see the Reichlen SPF and Hyltin Dew, and I'm sorry that I've already seen Pereira's dew as I'd really like to see Hyltin's SPF.
