Nutcracker by Scottish Ballet, Theatre Royal until Saturday

The enduring tale of kids, mice, sweeties and a magician is certainly not just for Christmas when a revival of the late Peter Darrell’s 1970s version is as glitteringly entrancing and rewarding as this.

For the glitter, a shout-out to ballet design supremo Lez Brotherston.

He gives us a set of sumptuous colour, sparkle, lights and drama that injects fresh life into a work that for some years had been replaced in Scottish Ballet’s repertoire by Ashley Page’s darker, updated interpretation.

But there is a fundamental problem in the traditional libretto of Nutcracker which the history of this production amply illustrates.

Darrel premiered his version of Act Two’s Realm of the Sugar Plum Fairy as a stand-alone work a full year before he completed the troublesome Prologue and Act One to finish the work.

The over-long former sets the scene for young Clara’s Christmas party acquisition of the nutcracker doll and the appearance of the mysterious Drosselmeyer who turns the doll into a prince and transports them on a magical journey.

Darrell’s bold – and in many ways admirable – decision to cast children in the roles of children instead of the more commonly found young professionals limits the amount of dance he offers and does little to lessen the scene-setting tedium.

And Act One’s battle between toy soldiers and mice is there because the original story says it has to be. It can best be described here as perfunctory.

All, however, is forgiven and nearly forgotten when Peter Darrell takes us to where his heart is – the world of Sugar Plum with breathtaking, beautiful national dances and a moving pas de deux from the Prince and Sugar Plum executed with huge skill by Christopher Harrison and Sophie Martin.

A word, too, for young Lily Wearmouth as Clara. Remember the name. She has a future.

So, in a ballet of two halves, the second makes the whole thing highly pleasurable and we’ll worth the ticket.

Dick Godfrey