Theatre

April 24, 2008

West Side Story rumbles with brilliance

By Colin Thomas

West Side Story

Book by Arthur Laurents. Music by Leonard Bernstein. Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Directed by Lloyd Nicholson. A Royal City Musical Theatre production. At the Massey Theatre on Friday, April 18. Continues until April 26

Almost everything in West Side Story has the potential to make me cry. It’s such a fantastic work of art that, when it’s handled well, all of its parts move me. This Royal City Musical Theatre production turned on my waterworks a number of times.

The roles of Tony and Maria, the doomed Polish and Puerto Rican lovers, are ridiculously challenging. The vocal ranges they demand are operatic, and innocence isn’t easy to portray. Kazumi Evans makes a charming, vocally strong Maria, and Mat Baker is especially impressive as Tony. Even at the top, Baker’s tenor is unstrained, and he delivers an honest, passionate performance.

Robyn Wong sings beautifully as Anita, the girlfriend of Maria’s brother, Bernardo, and she’s as hot and sassy as the role calls for her to be.

With Valerie Easton’s choreography, the Act 1 dance-hall number is like an extended orgasm of late-’50s cool, and the staging of Act 2’s “Gee, Officer Krupke” is boisterously playful.

Philip Guhl’s saturated, impressionistic lighting turns the New York sky from turquoise to lavender to orange, and I love the harsh neon that descends for the scenes in Doc’s soda shop. A bit of restraint wouldn’t hurt; Guhl overdoes it when he gets into twinkling lights. Chris Sinosich’s costumes are also rich.

Under Lloyd Nicholson’s direction, the mounting manages to feel fresh while staying true to the spirit of the original. There are a couple of odd choices, however. I was surprised to find Anybodys, a female-born character we’d probably describe as trans these days, dancing the girl parts, which would be worse for her than wearing a dress. And making “Someday” into a flashback of the rumble misses an opportunity for a change in tone.

Still, this is a handsome mounting of the best musical ever written.

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I am sick of reading Mr. Thomas' longstanding contention that the character of Anybody's is a lesbian (or trans, or whatever--he says the same damned thing every time he reviews a production of WSS). MAYBE she's gay... MAYBE... but it is also entirely plausible that she is not! Here's an alternative hypothesis: her dad is a closeted effeminate homosexual and she is deeply ashamed of this, given the socio-religious context in which she lives. She looks upon Riff as the ideal, Jesus-like male and has an all-consuming crush on him. But she does not have the classic womanly attributes to compete with the Velmas and Graziellas of her world. The only way she can think of getting close to Riff is to be a member of the Jets. Wow! Look at me! I've just blown Colin Thomas' decades-old queer construction of West Side Story out of the East River! And if he really requires there to be a gay person in the show other than the obvious choice, dancemaster Gladhand, then why not Baby John? But the real question is, just how does he propose that Anybody's alleged Sapphic desires be manifested in a production of WSS? That's smthg I would really like to know.
He's right about one thing though. The Royal City production was fabulous. BTW, the song is entitled Somewhere, not Someday... but someday, maybe he'll grow out of his obsession with the "correct" portrayal of Anybodys... I mean, really, to quote the Critic himself, "give the little dyke a break."
Submitted by EDorchester on Thu, 2008-04-24 21:56.