WEST SIDE STORY

 

West Side Story. 

Based on a conception by Jerome Robbins. Book by Arthur Laurents. Music by Leonard Bernstein. Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Directed by and choreographically re-produced by Joey McKneely. Musical Supervisor/conductor Donald Chan. Starring Nigel Huckle as Tony, Sophie Salvesani as Maria. Olivia Carniato as Anita, Noah Mullins as Riff and Keanu Gonzalez as Bernardo. A BB Group Production, presented by Opera Australia and GWB Entertainment. Canberra Theatre. Canberra Theatre Centre. October 12-27. Bookings. 62752700.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Jerome Robbins’s West Side Story has earned its legendary status amongst the great American musicals of all time. Inspired by  Shakespeare’s tragic tale of Verona’s star-crossed lovers, Robbins with musical maestro Leonard Bernstein and lyricist Stephen Sondheim has created a powerful morality musical that transcends the sublime with an heartbreaking condemnation of tribal rivalry and racial hatred in a society struggling to espouse egalitarian and democratic values.

Tonight sung by Tony Todd Jacobbson) Photo: Jeff Busby

At the curtain call at the end of the matinee, I wipe the tears from my eyes. They are cathartic tears of admiration at the brilliantly staged and magnificently performed touring Australian production of West Side Story.  They are tears of sorrow, not only for the fate of gang leaders Riff (Noah Mullins) and Bernardo (Keanu Gozalez) and lovers Tony (Nigel Huckle) and Maria (Sophie Salvesani), but for humanity, for a world divided by distrust, fear and hate. They are tears of frustration at the vain attempts by Lieutenant Schrank (Paul Dawber), Officer Krupke (Beryn Schwerdt), Glad Hand (Paul Hanlon) and Polish immigrant Doc (Richie Singer) to stop the violence and forge a peace between the disgruntled American youth and the Puerto Rican immigrants. That the tears flow is due to the power of the performance, its manipulative illusion and its dynamic infiltration of every part of my being. My spirit soars with director Joey McKneely’s staging of Jerome Robbins’s original choreography from the opening dance of the Jets and the Sharks, led by Riff and Bernardo. I live in hope that the Somewhere Dream Ballet of hope and reconciliation may loosen the shackles of hateful prejudice and find somewhere a place of peace and harmony. I hold my breath at the cruel violation of innocent Anita (Olivia Carniatu) in unjust revenge for Riff’s death. And there are tears for the weeping agony of Maria as she collapses on Tony’s corpse. 

   Anita ( Chloe Zuel) and the Puerto Rican women

sing America in West Side Story. Photo: Jeff Busby

 This is the power of this production to elicit such emotion, to stir the conscience, arouse the sense of futility and desperation. The songs are as familiar to me as childhood nursery rhymes, and yet Leonard Bernstein’s score under the baton of conductor Daniel Chan, and sung with such soul and feeling by principals and ensemble alike captivates the heart, provokes the mind and transports me to a plane of contemplation and searing empathy. Paul Gallis’s Downtown setting beneath the Manhattan bridge, evocatively lit by Peter Halbsgut induces the bleak air of poverty and alienation.

Broadway has come to Canberra. Opera Australia, GWB Entertainments and BB Group Productions have staged a West Side Story to rival the best of Broadway or the West End. Youthful performers excite. Designers astound and musicians fill the air with sounds that lift the spirits and stir the emotions. Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics and Bernstein’s music are immortalized in the opening Jet song or Tony’s song of hope Something’s Coming, echoed in Tonight. Maria’s I Feel Pretty expresses the ardour of young love in heartfelt contrast to Anita’s plea for resistance in A Boy Like That.

 Maria (Sophie Salvesani) and Tony (Todd Jacobbson)

exchange marriage vows in West Side Story. Photo: Jeff Busby

 Like Doc, I am left with a question, drained by a Greek Tragedy, having tasted the sweet nectar of musical theatre with this production, but burdened still by a hopelessness that defies all change. I most enthusiastically recommend this production to all people, partly because it is a triumphant tribute to the genius of Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, but also because though history so often repeats itself, the world deserves to be reminded that the world still needs to change. People still need to change. And West Side Story still needs to be told.