Ratmansky’s The Naked King skewers vanity and power
In Alexei Ratmansky’s The Naked King, a bloated monarch in heels totters across the stage, his swollen form propped and paraded by members of an obliging entourage. Andrew Veyette, returning to the stage after retiring last spring, makes a memorable scene stealer of the King — equal parts ridiculous and sickening — while the Queen, played by Miriam Miller, reacts with brittle, bored disdain.
The ballet is a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” set to Jean Françaix’s Le Roi Nu. Santo Loquasto’s costumes span eras from Louis XIV to 1980s hair bands and give the proceedings a tawdry edge. The three airborne Swindlers — Daniel Ulbricht, David Gabriel and KJ Takahashi — slither and persuade the King of the power of invisible clothes, while an entourage of monochrome flatterers refuses to admit the obvious until a child, Oliver Lobo Ellena, bursts onstage to shout, “Look!