‘The Harlem Nutcracker’ Tells Universal Story

The strongest moments in Donald Byrd’s “The Harlem Nutcracker”--and there are many--occur when the choreographer focuses intensely on individuals: Clara as a grandmother experiencing her first Christmas after the death of her husband, her reliving of their life together in memory and dream, the family members who have distinct personalities and don’t get along perfectly but are reconciled on Christmas morning.

The weakest are when Byrd steps away from them to generalize about a period and a people’s history.

So they were when “The Harlem Nutcracker” made its local debut in 1996, and so they remain, even after Byrd’s reconsideration of the historical sections of his work.

He has rechoreographed the sequence of African American history from the Depression to the present to make it into a series of near tableaux. This new version, together with more detailed choreography and a slightly streamlined set, opened Thursday at the Wiltern Theatre for a run extended through next Sunday.

Though the “Passing Through Time” sequence is now less generalized and more personal to Clara and her family, it still doesn’t work. It’s not always clear. It stops the action. It looks didactic. It pulls the focus away from Clara.

The genius elsewhere is that this is not only a Harlem Nutcracker but also a universal one. We all know, to some degree or other, loss and loneliness, the need for family and the joy of love. And Byrd repeatedly speaks to that.

Whatever our beliefs, we are deeply consoled by Death’s arriving in the form of Clara’s husband, especially in the detailed and committed performances by Eleanor McCoy and Gus Solomons Jr.

Between the two extremes occur many occasions of pure dance entertainment value. It would be hard and perhaps unfair to single out dancers from Byrd’s hard-working group. They seem to have hardly any time at all to change costume before dancing full-out in yet another sequence, and their sunny effort is exhilarating.

As is the playing of the Tchaikovsky-Ellington-Strayhorn-Berger score by the Club Sweets Jazz Orchestra led by David Berger.

The “Passing Through Time” sequence hardly ruins the work, but one hopes Byrd will rethink it--again.

* Donald Byrd’s “The Harlem Nutcracker” will repeat with alternating casts today at 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 and 7:30 p.m., Nov. 19 and Nov. 20 at 8 p.m., Nov. 21 at 2 and 8 p.m. and Nov. 22 at 2 p.m., Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd. Evenings: $30-$45. Matinees: $25-$35. (310) 825-2101.