David Hallberg Brings Oscar to City Center
The Australian Ballet played City Center Oct. 8 to 11 with Wheeldon's Oscar under David Hallberg. The run, the mixed reviews and what we could not confirm.
David Hallberg, the American Ballet Theatre star who now runs The Australian Ballet, spent four nights this month back on a New York stage, this time as the man behind it. The company played New York City Center from Oct. 8 to 11 with Oscar, Christopher Wheeldon's full-length ballet about Oscar Wilde. It was the anchor of City Center's Artists at the Center series, which spotlights Hallberg this season.
What the run was
Oscar is a story ballet built around Wilde's imprisonment for gross indecency in 1895. City Center's listing says Wilde revisits his fame, his love affairs and his downfall while weaving in two of his tales, The Nightingale and the Rose and The Picture of Dorian Gray. Joby Talbot wrote the score, played live by the 48-piece Orchestra of St. Luke's. Tickets started at $45, the running time was about 2 hours and 15 minutes with an intermission, and the house warned of mature themes and sexually explicit content.
The ballet premiered Sept. 13, 2024, at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne. Wheeldon, a two-time Tony winner for MJ the Musical and An American in Paris, created it with the designer Jean-Marc Puissant. The New Yorker's fall dance preview described the engagement as the company's first return to City Center since 2012 and said Hallberg took over as director after his own career at ABT. We have not independently confirmed the 2012 date beyond that preview.
Why Hallberg is the story
Hallberg's presence gave the run its New York angle. He danced for years at ABT before moving to Australia to lead the national company, and City Center billed the Oscar engagement as part of a series built around him. The program credits list The David Hallberg Fund for Artistic Aspiration among the backers of the production, according to City Center's page. The Australian Ballet also appeared in the 2026 Fall for Dance Festival.
Dance Informa's Emily Sarkissian wrote that the dancers under Hallberg's direction were stunning, with long lines and clean, daring technique, and said the opening night house was sold out. Many in the audience wore green carnations, a nod to Wilde. She also said she got lost in the plot more than once.
What critics said
The notices were mixed. The New Yorker's Hannah Aizenman praised a pas de deux for two men as admirable and affecting in a dance world still dominated by heterosexual romance, and said Oscar is among the first full-length story ballets, if not the first, to center on romantic relationships between men. She also found the ballet unfocused, with some parts overstuffed and others failing to fill with expressive movement. She singled out Grace Carroll as the Nightingale, Adam Elmes as Dorian Gray, Elijah Trevitt as Bosie and Callum Linnane as Wilde.
The ballet uses a narrator, the actor Seán O'Shea, to relate the trial. Aizenman called that telling, because Wilde's gift was language and dance is a nonverbal art. A New York Times review carried by the Daily Gazette was headlined A Dancing Oscar Wilde, in Love but Drained of Wit. We read only that headline, not the full review.
Why it matters for New York
The run put a major international company, and a former New York star, on a Midtown stage with live orchestra, which is expensive and rare. It also put a gay love story at the center of a mainstage dance program. For readers who missed it, the engagement is over, and any future U.S. dates are on the company's tour page, which we did not check for new listings.
What we could not confirm
We did not attend a performance. Attendance beyond the sold-out opening night is not confirmed. We could not verify the 2012 date independently, and we did not read the full New York Times review. Casting changed by night, per City Center's note that casting is subject to change, so the dancers named above may not be the ones you saw. The cover photograph shows Hallberg in The Sleeping Beauty in 2010 and was not taken at Oscar.
FAQ
Is Oscar still playing in New York?
No. The City Center run ended Oct. 11, 2026.
Who is David Hallberg?
A former American Ballet Theatre principal who is now artistic director of The Australian Ballet.
Who wrote the music?
Joby Talbot, played live by the Orchestra of St. Luke's.
Sources
*Cover photo: Tbonny, Wikimedia Commons, *[*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:David_Hallberg.jpg*](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:David_Hallberg.jpg)* (CC BY 3.0).*