Having a woman play a man seems a trendy choice in this day and age. But that doesn’t make American Ballet Theater’s production of “Crime and Punishment” particularly fashionable. It isslot machine, however, punishing. Where is its drive?

In Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s gripping 19th-century novel, Raskolnikov is a desperately poor university student who commits a horrific double murder. If only this “Crime and Punishment,” by the choreographer Helen Pickett and the director James Bonas, came close to its dramatic fervor.

An all-too-rare case of the company giving a full-length ballet its world premiere in New York City, “Crime and Punishment” was a risk. Story ballets are hard to pull off, and that’s true here. The fussy, micro attention to character development eclipses the expanse and sweep of a bigger picture: Who deserves to live or die?

The winding torque of a spine, the pull between lightness and gravity, the aggressive thrust of a kick — they all become more cartoonish than emotional. There’s so little movement variety that the whole thing drags. At some point, you stop wondering if Raskolnikov will be caught and start praying that he will. What’s taking so long?

Raskolnikov is played by Cassandra Trenary with the kind of bold, emotional commitment she’s known for. With a character like this, gender isn’t as important as the vehemence of the body in all of its pain and rage. (The role will also be danced by Herman Cornejo and Breanne Granlund.) But with few exceptions, Trenary’s frenetic, contorted shapes wash over the stage — back and forth, like windshield wipers — with momentum but little range.

The two-act ballet — 20 scenes, plus a prologue and an epilogue — is full of stops and starts. Pickett, a former dancer with William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt, has a history of collaborating with Bonas; they have produced versions of “The Crucible” and “Madame Bovary.”

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.slot machine

• Disappointing
• Another
• Book
• Beloved
• slot machine