Broadway Review: West Side Story

Despite some obvious shortcomings, 91 year old director and writer Arthur Laurents has proven that you can’t kill a masterpiece. That masterpiece happens to be West Side Story. The Leonard Bernstein score, Stephen Sondheim lyrics and Arthur Laurents’ book, based loosely on Romeo and Juliet, still has the power to give you chills and draw you into the love story between two members of warring rival gangs.

When originally produced on Broadway, Brooks Atkinson in his 1957 NY Times review called the material “horrifying.” Today’s audience would hardly be “horrified.” There were even some awkward titters to be heard in the audience during some inappropriate moments. Yet this evening’s audience was still deeply moved by the production.

It took until the final scene of act one, the rumble, for me to be pulled into this production. Part of this was due to some poor casting choices among the Jets. Frankly, some of these boys would be more threatening with a curling iron than with a switch blade. Another critic referred to them as looking as though they just jumped out of a Gap commercial. Frankly, my analogy would lean more towards the “Mickey Mouse Club.” Some of the earnestness of the young actors stood out like a sore thumb. The smudged “dirt” on their faces only served to further give portions of the production a tone of amateurishness. That said this cast dances the Jerome Robbins choreography, recreated beautifully for this production by Joey McKneely with precision and energy.

Tony is played by Matt Cavenaugh, seen in last season’s A Catered Affair as well as Grey Gardens and Urban Cowboy, both from a couple of seasons ago. Cavenaugh sings the songs with a pure unforced voice that floats out of him. You don’t buy into his character until the end of the first act as well. From there on he shines. Argentinean native Josefina Scaglione plays Maria. She has a lovely voice though it never quite lives up to the hype and at times was actually slightly off pitch. Despites some other critic’s reviews which felt there was more to her voice than her acting, I felt she handled herself beautifully as an actress and actually was even more convincing when singing. The material gave her more than enough opportunity to win you over. “One Hand, One Heart” was delicate and impassioned and “Somewhere” left you with chills.

Karen Olivo as Anita is the show’s tour de force and emotional realist. Her fear is palpable in the drugstore scene with the Jets in the second act. She has a fierce voice and a commanding presence. She is paired with Cody Green who gives a terrific performance in the role of Riff.

Kudos to Arthur Laurents for taking a chance, presenting sections of the show in Spanish (as translated by In the Heights’ Lin-Manuel Miranda). I’m sorry to say it doesn’t work. It’s distracting and irritating, particularly when used at length for major plot-sensitive scenes and songs. The two numbers that are done almost exclusively in Spanish are “I Feel Pretty” and “A Boy Like That.” The latter was a particularly poor choice to throw at what I’m sure are a large number of non-Spanish speaking audience members. Some of the audience tonight were kids who I’m sure have never seen this show. Mr. Laurents does his production and his work a disservice by making this choice. Had any other director attempted to do that in this manner, he couldn’t have been forgiven nearly as easily as we can forgive Laurents (being the original author of the book).

The set, by James Youmans was minimalist and unobtrusive. His scenery for the rumble scene at the end of act one was particularly effective and impressive.

The real star of this production is the Leonard Bernstein score and Jerome Robbins choreography. The orchestra, with a full complement of violins and cellos is under the direction of Patrick Vaccariello. My hat is off to the producers of this show for giving the Bernstein score the instrumentation it needs, you got your moneys worth. Looking around me at the show tonight I saw a sea of young faces. How encouraging to see the next generation experiencing a true American classic in the musical theatre repertoire. This production deserves to run and if the audience tonight was any indication, it will do just fine.

West Side Story is playing at the Palace Theatre, 1564 Broadway. Get tickets.

See detailed show credits from IBDB.com.

See other Broadway reviews at TheAndyGram.com