West Side Story: An eye-opening production of a modern classic

West Side Story

Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin

★★★★☆

When West Side Story premiered on Broadway, in 1957, it brought a distinct new energy to American musical theatre. Its story, a modern version of Romeo and Juliet, from a book by Arthur Laurents and with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, may have been drawn from classical material, but the style was a groundbreaking urban cool.

From the opening clarion call of the trumpets, Leonard Bernstein’s score sets out its experimental interest in blending the everyday sounds of whistles and whoops, finger clicks and fist slaps, siren shrieks and lip smacks, into the sonic fabric of his musical storytelling. Jerome Robbins, who both directed and choreographed the original production, made movement and dance an integral part of character development and plot, defining the rival gangs of the Jets and the Sharks as much by their punches as by their pirouettes.

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For this new touring production, directed by Lonny Price, the set designer Anna Louizos puts the star-crossed lovers Maria and Tony on the fire escape of a rundown tenement in Manhattan, where storefronts are plastered with faded billboards promising an outdated version of the American dream. If the plot holds no surprises, Price’s staging does, particularly for audiences who know the work only from the 1961 and 2021 film versions.

This is most notable in the fantasy sequence in act two, where Price restores the balletic impulses of Robbins’s directorial vision. In this key scene, the anthemic Somewhere is performed offstage by a soprano as Tony and Maria silently engage the Sharks and Jets through movement, finding “a new way of living, a new way of forgiving” for the rival gangs.

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Soaked in the yellow glow of Fabrice Kebour’s lighting design, however, there is a too-bright heat to the vision that foreshadows the story’s tragic ending, before dissolving into the pantomime pity-party of Gee Officer Krupke, the penultimate musical number, a final moment of light relief.

Gang warfare – the collective – is a key theme of West Side Story, and as such the uniform excellence of Price’s assembled ensemble is crucial. But it is perhaps worth singling out Melanie Sierra, who brings a welcome goofy childishness to Maria, as well as a fine soprano voice, and Kyra Sorce’s passionate Anita. Their shared late number A Boy Like That/I Had a Love is a triumph of romance and rage, hurt and healing. As the inevitable end of the doomed love affair unfolds, and the men carry Tony from the stage, it is the women who speak the truth and see the future.

Runs at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin 2, until Saturday, June 24th