The belles of the ball in San Francisco Ballet’s “Cinderella” are the brilliant designs dreamed up by Julian Crouch (who gave us Broadway’s “Big Fish” and “Addams Family”) and master puppeteer Basil Twist thought them up. Though there are no puppets per se, Twist’s magical carriage for Cinderella seemingly materialized out of thin air, and at Wednesday night’s opening got the biggest applause of the night.
Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon made his own tweaks — there’s no fairy godmother, no pumpkin and no clock chiming midnight, though you can still hear it in the score — but unlike Matthew Bourne, who turned “Sleeping Beauty” into “Kiss of the Vampire,” Wheeldon sticks to the familiar story of the ball and the slipper, all set to Prokofiev’s moody music, played live.
Even so, there’s plenty of innovation here, including a forest of chandeliers and a conga line of chairs that contain hopeful and not-so-hopeful contenders for the shoe that fits. And Cinderella’s family is less evil than usual: Her stepmother may be a lush and her father a wimp, but one of the stepsisters is sweet enough to find love.
As Cinderella, Maria Kochetkova looked the part with her waif-like body. She had lovely chemistry with her prince, Joan Boada. When they first met, he found the sweetest way of keeping her from stepping on his feet as they waltzed. But while Boada was warm and witty, Wheeldon saddled him with a sidekick who got the showier steps — and Taras Domitro almost stole the show with his double air turns.
With all those creative designs, the competent but repetitious choreography felt like just another pretty girl on the dance floor. Wheeldon knows how to work a pointe shoe, so the women fare well, but when the guys aren’t toting and carrying the gals, they’re doing acrobatics instead of ballet.
Still, this is a handsome and ingenious version of a beloved tale. Not every classic needs to be vamped-up with vampires.