With glorious, exciting music by Leonard Bernstein, dashing lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and rollicking, memorable choreography and direction by Jerome Robbins, "West Side Story" brought something new and different to American musical theater when it opened on Broadway in 1957.
The production that opened at the Fox Theatre last night remains big and brawling (it should be brassy, too, but even though the pit orchestra was 19 musicians strong, it seemed a little light in that area). And it's slightly different in tone. Arthur Laurents, who wrote the original book, directs the current production,which began in New York in 2009, and has made it darker. More of the dialogue is in Spanish, reflecting New York today. A couple of songs are sung in both English and Spanish, a good touch. Most important, none of the gang members are "cute." It starts with Riff (Drew Foster), who enters and stands at center stage — and glares angrily at the audience. So do his buddies on the Jets, and the attitude remains throughout.
Of course, Bernstein and Robbins started that. No 1957 American musical ended its first act with two dead bodies on the stage.
"West Side Story" remains powerful. It's a dancers' show, with some splendid work by the entire cast. Joey McKneeley reproduced the Robbins choreography, all sudden moves and sharp edges. That leaves a few of the singers a little short, but I think that's because it was more important to cast dancers who could sing than vice versa.
Sometimes that distinction is very narrow. Michelle Aravena, as Anita, shows excellent range, soaring in her second-act duet ("A Boy Like that"/"I Have a Love") with Maria (Evy Ortiz), and she's a fiery delight in "America," where she and the Shark girls light up the house. Ortiz seemed more of a balladeer than a belter, but was charmng. Maria and Tony (Ross Lekites) are not the first theatrical couple to fall in love "across a crowded room," but I had a hard time believing Lekites' ardor and his acting as a New York gang kid. It was just all too neat and tidy. Maybe the fact that it was Valentine's Day made this cynic unable to suspend enough disbelief. And the story is based on Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet."
German Santiago was excellent as Bernardo, leader of the Sharks and brother to Anita, and three of the Jets also stood out, the aforementioned Foster as Riff, Jon Drake as Action, who wants to be a leader but who just can't reach higher than a post as a trouble-maker and agitator, and Alexandra Frohlinger, the cute little tomboy (yep, a word not heard in years, but it fits) who is desperate to become a gang member. She certainly does not play the role in a way to justify her disparaging nickname, but Action finally does something nice for someone when he tells her that as a reward for her courage, she can be a member. The Adults, including Doc, the drugstore owner (John O'Creagh), Officer Krupke (Wally Dunn) and Lt. Schrank (Mike Boland), barely reach two-dimensional but that's the way Laurent wrote them
James Youmans' set design works nicely, giving a dark feeling of being under what probably then was the West Side Highway and now has been gentrified as the Meat-Packing District and the High Line. There were a few missed cues, but that's an easily solved problem.
David C. Woolard's costumes worked nicely in character with the players and Howell Binkley's lights provided a proper emphasis.
West Side Story, a touring production, opened last night at the Fox Theatre to run through Feb. 26
—Joe