I was at the matinee yesterday, my first time seeing this production. Tiler Peck was a delightful Aurora, gliding through the vision scene and with a particularly delightful third act solo. I held off getting tickets until casting was released so I could see her and I was not disappointed. I particularly enjoy how she is able to capture multiple phrases within the music simultaneously within her dancing, and I truly felt there was a distinct Aurora with each act. I found Tyler Angle to convincingly capture the prince's searching and longing quality, even if his solo came a little short of the top of his game. Ashley Laracey's Lilac Fairy was fine, a little bland in interpretation perhaps, but I can't tell if that's part of the Lilac Fairy's character to be uniformly good to the point of one-dimension at this point. Sara Means was a fabulous actress for Carabosse- I found myself grinning every time she was on stage. I also found myself longing for an intermission after the first act- it seems like the natural place for one instead of heading straight into the vision scene. The usher by me had to whisper "it's not over" as many heads had turned towards the door as the curtain fell on act 1.
Highlights (besides Tiler Peck's ebullient performance, a gift to behold) included Harrison Ball as Gold, who gave it his all and got an impressive response from the matinee crowd, and Unity Phelan, who's Diamond variation was so lovely and precise I wished we could have seen more of her.
Low moments- I found the Puss & Boots pas to be quite disturbing, particularly in the wake of all that's been going on in the company. The music and costumes are intentionally a little off-putting, but what really made me wince is Puss and Boots is repeatedly clawing his way up the White Cat's skirt- and the audience is laughing at that. It read similar to the R&J slap, to be honest. Surely there are other versions of this PDD equally entertaining but without the undercurrent of assault?
