Visually stunning with extraordinary dancing and choreography, Garrett Ammon’s new show can be confusing to follow

It’s not hard to understand why artists of various kinds feel the need to develop their own versions of established forms and stories. These individuals are, after all, creatives who look at the world from a very personal perspective and who regularly push themselves to place their own stamp on existing classics. Choreographers are known to create mashups of well-known ballets that speak to contemporary audiences.

Wonderbound’s Artistic Director Garrett Ammon is recognized for his personal take on much loved folktales, myths and ballets. With Agent Romeo he’s at it again with his version of the Romeo and Juliet story — with a number of twists.

Ammon has changed the time, place and culture. Now, it’s the 1970s, and the warring groups are no longer two powerful families but rather a bunch of Massachusetts gangsters (the Capulets) and the FBI agents (the Montagues) seeking to bring them down.

As he does with all his works, Ammon has written the narrative for Agent Romeo, created the choreography, developed the overall production design and selected the music (Prokofiev’s magnificent score). Although he often also designs the sets, in this case Ammon has engaged the international set designer Cameron Anderson who’s worked for ballet, opera and theatre companies around the world.

Under Ammon’s direction, she has designed a visually stunning setting with massive movable pieces that take us seamlessly through a number of environments, from an abandoned warehouse to Juliet’s house to a neighborhood bar.

As I have written in all my reviews of Wonderbound the strongest element in Ammon’s ballets is often the dynamic dancing of the company he has built over the years, and that is true here. All ballet-trained, each and every dancer has mastered both the challenging technical feats that Ammon gives them and the dramatic requirements of the characters he develops. It is always tough to single out particular performers except when they are cast in lead roles and that holds true for Agent Romeo. Azelle Chang (Juliet) and Nathan Mariano (Romeo) have a number of beautiful and touching pas de deux, but they are easily backed up by the entire ensemble whose impressive physical prowess and intense emotionality are on full display.

Nathan Mariano and Azelle Change in ‘Agent Romeo’ at Wonderbound. | Photo: Amanda Tipton Photography

Muddy narrative

Despite its strengths Agent Romeo doesn’t quite live up to the best of Ammon’s work. This is due to the fact that the narrative is somewhat muddy. The main problem is that there are so many characters  costumed so similarly it is often difficult to know who’s who. There are a few times when the FBI agents are wearing FBI windbreakers or badges, but most times they look exactly the same as the crime family. In the bar scene, for instance, when Romeo and Juliet first meet, this is clearly Ammon’s intent. He has the agents disguise themselves to fool the gangsters, and this works, but it confuses the audience as well.

As if to acknowledge the difficulty of following the plot, the written program includes a full two-page synopsis. But Ammon has added or altered so many details of the basic story that even reading the synopsis again after the ballet was over did not clear up some of my lack of clarity. In the end, this made Agent Romeo ultimately more frustrating than satisfying for me. Having said that, it is always exciting to see such a talented company of well-trained dancers, and in that sense Agent Romeo did not disappoint.