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Nicholas de Jongh's rating
Reader rating
Description: A production marking the 50th anniversary of the first London staging of the musical by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, based on Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet. Directed by Joey McKneely and featuring choreography by Jerome Robbins.
Trains: Tube: Angel 
Phone: 0844412 4300
Website: www.sadlerswells.com
A girl like Maria: the revival of West Side Story at Sadler's Wells is emotionally power-packed with Lana Gordon as the vivacious Anita and Sophia Escobar as the Shark girl who tragically falls in love with a Jet
Dynamic: the production by Joey McKneely never loses its tense momentum and conveys just the right atmosphere of aggression
What a stinging, contemporary resonance there is to Leonard Bernstein's classic Fifties musical in which the knife and gun do their fatal damage to Jets and the Sharks, young, rival gangsters in New York. West Side Story speaks and sings its alarming story of gangland love and feuding to a London in the grip of its knife epidemic far more urgently than it did in 1958.
Joey McKneely's fine, 50th anniversary production conveys just the right atmosphere of sizzling aggression, while the orchestra under Donald Chan's direction ensures the musical never loses its tense momentum.
Those classic songs of yearning and menace, penned by a young Stephen Sondheim - from Maria and Somewhere There's A Place For Us to Tonight and Something's Coming - are despatched with dynamic ardour too. Hundreds of youngsters caught up in gangland vendettas might well respond to the jazzy, jagged pugnacity of Bernstein's evocative, exciting score. They might even brood about the persuasiveness of Arthur Laurents's book that aims to demonstrates how cowardlyand futile these gangster killings prove in the end.
Set in the summer heat of New York, West Side story ranges Riff 's Jets, born in America but of Polish origin, against Bernardo's Puerto Rican Sharks, whom they regard as unwanted immigrants.
This racist antagonism is complicated by love that breaks out across the barriers - between Ryan Silverman's Tony who has grown out of the Jets but still belongs with them and Puerto Rican Maria. Since it was written at a time when the stage was censored, no expletivesor foul language are spat from the lips of gangsters who when first togged up look too clean and smartly dressed. Silverman's Tony, in his beige trousers and blue shirt, might even have been costumed courtesy of Middle England. Yet what a sense of simmering violence is soon projected upon the stage, which designer Paul Gallis fills with mobile sets of three-tiered wooden galleries and walkways to encompass the musical's multiple locations.
Thanks to the vanity of Jerome Robbins, the musical's original director and choreographer, no one since has been allowed to alter his applauded choreography. And the early scenes, in which the Jets and Sharks communicate their mutual hatred through dancing, bristles with balletic elegance, neatness and restraint rather than anything more dangerous. Yet under a highway overpass, when knives are for the first time drawn, a shocking dance to the death is arranged. And the Jets' rape of Lana Gordon's vivacious, smouldering Anita, Bernardo's girlfriend, similarly exploits dance in modes of high menace.The final tableau, in which the Jets and Sharks carry away Tony's bullet-laden body, raises frail hopes of reconciliation after shocking waste of life.
Not all the lead gangsters are quite threatening enough, though John Arthur Greene's Action fairly sizzles with rage, while Marco Santiago's Bernardo looks a dangerous customer. And even if Silverman's Tony looks a bit mature he sings with a rare power and passion for Sophia Escobar's bewitched and bothered Maria. It's a fabulous, emotionally power-packed revival, with a social-political punch.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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The dancing was the supreme element of this production. The choreography was absolutely outstanding, executed with slickness, precision and dynamism.
Whilst Tony reminded me, in his dress, manner and looks, of a young farmer from the shires of the UK, his vocal range was tremendous. Maria too had a wonderful voice which carried well when she sang but was difficult to hear when she spoke. In fact it was a little difficult to hear a lot of the spoken words. My seat was in the 1st circle so I would have expected to hear every word clearly.
If you love dance, you will love this production - go see, enjoy!
- Lynne, London, UK
The minute the orchestra started playing the overture in knew i was in for a great evening. The dancing was so slick and seeing a staged production as opposed to seeing the film you get the atmosphere. My only slight disappointment was the staging but some people will appreciate was the producer was doing.
- Larry Gold, leytonstone
