The Princess and The Goblin, February 12, 2012, Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center

What do you get when you cross an obscure fairy tale, decent music, and a famous choreographer? Atlanta Ballet's new production of The Princess and the Goblin, choreographed by Twyla Tharp. I had high hopes for this show, because, well, TWLYA THARP. In The Upper Room. Nine Sinatra Songs. Come Fly Away. Am I right?

Sort of. The Princess and the Goblin is a well-executed piece. The music of Schubert, put together by Ms. Tharp and the music historian Richard Burke, makes a score that flows well from one scene to the next. The choreography is suitably complex, with interesting moments and some striking scenes. The costumes, by Anne Armit of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, are hit and miss - the purposefully outlandish costumes on the adults in the first scene hit the mark, but the modern street clothes on the children did not mesh with the more classical costumes on the adults. The story was not elaborated in the program and left me somewhat confused.

Here's the synopsis (from what I gathered): The adults at court, including the king, ignore their children to focus on "adult" things, to the extent that the children are abducted without their notice. Only Princess Irene and her friend Curdie see what happens, and they follow the abductors, a race call Goblin, to their possibly underground kingdom. For some reason, the Goblin King and Queen are played by Irene's father and her sisters' nanny (are they evil?). The ghost/spirit of Irene's great-great-grandmother guides her to womanhood by teaching her some smooth moves and how to wear pointe shoes. Irene then teaches said skilz to the Goblin to gain their trust, and they turn on the King and Queen long enough for her to help the children escape. Then everyone dances together, the human adults are redeemed and no longer ignore their children, and the Goblin leave them alone for the rest of eternity. Or something.

Alessa Rogers as Princess Irene was lovely, although she has the sort of freakishly arched feet that leave me wondering how she stays on pointe at all. She was feisty and believable as someone who could outwit the Goblin. John Welker was suitably unyielding as both King Papa and the King of the Goblin, and danced a nice pas de deux with Tara Lee (the Queen) that was unfortunately overshadowed by other action on the stage. Rachel Van Buskirk stood out in a pas de deux (with ???) in which she comically breaks in her new Goblin-style pointe shoes. My favorite performance was that of Jesse Tyler, who along with Christian Clark was a royal guard who eventually converted to Princess Irene's side. He had just the right mix of attitude, goofiness, and charm to really define his character. (Mr. Clark, one of my favorite dancers, played it too straight.) Jacob Bush, playing Curdie, was pleasant, but did not have much of a part to work with. Christine Winkler rounded out the cast as great-great-grandmother Irene.

I suppose it's not fair to complain that this was not enough like a traditional story ballet. The world has moved on, and no one will ever create another Swan Lake or Coppelia. But given the hype that surrounded this production, with the emphasis on the goal of creating a new story ballet, I wanted more than I got. Somehow Ms. Tharp managed to both play it too straight and not straight enough.