Riverside Theatre’s musicals all have one feature in common: they get standing ovations, especially on opening night. “West Side Story,” which opened Tuesday, was no exception. But when the stage went dark, the applause was more respectful than rapturous, and few leapt to their feet right off.
And how could they? The force of the final scene seemed to keep people riveted to their seats. Though an ovation did eventually roll through the audience, it seemed a pensive one. Hardly what one would have expected for Riverside’s most requested show for three years running, and its biggest advance ticket seller ever – before it even opened.
Based on Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” “West Side Story” is set in Manhattan in the 1950s. Star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria fall in love at a dance meant to unite two rival gangs: the Sharks, from Puerto Rico, and the Jets, who are Polish-American.
The couple’s kiss enflames the warring sides. In a rumble, two men die, and the quest to avenge their deaths finally undoes Maria and Tony, who ends up shot. The play ends as the two sides rush in to carry his body off, a sign that the feud is finally over.
Originally a Jewish girl and an Irish-Catholic boy, Jerome Robbins, agreed to chance the ethnicities after approaching composer Leonard Bernstein and playwright Arthur Laurents.
Staged in 1957, Robbins, Bernstein, Laurents and Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the lyrics, radically broke ground with the musical, accommodating balletic dance elements, a jazz-influenced score, and dark, slang-filled dialogue. Walter Kerr wrote in the New York Herald of “radioactive fallout” from the show, calling Robbins’ choreography “the most savage, restless, electrifying dance patterns we’ve been exposed to in a dozen seasons.” The show was a huge hit.
Then, in 2009 at the age of 91, Laurents decided the musical needed modernizing. He specifically wanted to make the gang members even more menacing. If the critics were right, the opposite resulted. Citing an earlier review calling the material in the original show “horrifying,” the New York Time’s Ben Brantley quipped that the new version would make the grown-ups feel “parentally protective.”
Another critic cited a “United Colors of Benetton vibe.”
Last Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal’s Terry Teachout saw the show here and called the performance “solid and meritorious.” He also noted the script hasn’t aged well, in particular the “clunky” made-up slang.
Riverside’s production, which may hew closer in tone to Laurents’ revival, seemed a far more light-hearted “West Side Story” than its predecessors. This is not the “West Side Story” many of us remember of gritty street gangs and adolescent menace.
The script still relies on deadly-serious themes: forbidden love, gang violence, and inter-ethnic hatred. The music is still incredibly beautiful, and the cast sings beautifully. But the edge was missing, the seamy, frightening side that offsets the desperate sweetness of Maria and Tony’s love.
While the swarthy Sharks had a modicum of menace, more than not, the members of the Jets gang didn’t look much tougher than Dobie Gillis. In high-waisted corduroy pants and tucked-in bright-colored T-shirts, these are the guys I’d ask for directions if I took a wrong turn in the dead of night.
As for their female counterparts, Penelope Armstead-Williams gave us a strong Anita. Though she seemed to be battling hoarseness in the last two songs on opening night, she sang, danced and acted with confidence. As well she should: Armstead just came off the international tour of “West Side Story” playing the same role.
In the role of Maria, Belinda Allyn sang as beautifully as she looked, a wide-eyed innocent in her tiered lace dress – more innocent than her actions would suggest. While her powerful voice carried her in the role, it must have taken nerves of steel to have such a pivotal part: she only just became a member of Actors Equity. Topping her credits are the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and performances with Disney Cruise Lines.
In the end, it was Anthony Festa’s Tony that carried the show. Festa starred in the London production as well as the UK and international tour. A lanky guy with a strong-featured face and confident physicality, he has the endearing swagger, toes turned in, of the school’s favorite jock. (The teenage drama student sitting next to me audibly gasped when he pulls off his shirt in the bedroom scene. She must have missed him as Ethan in “The Full Monty” here in 2012.)
As authentic as he is delivering lines, Festa’s singing voice shatters you, from the full-throated notes to the soft falsetto of “Somewhere.” His first notes in “Could Be” palpably warmed the audience, anxious to start hearing the songs they so adore.
Ken Clifton’s orchestra swelled under the singing. He did a miraculous job of reducing the difficult score from 26 instruments to 10. And of course, Bernstein’s music is spectacular, so brazenly modern compared to the musical theater scores of the day.
Riverside’s choreographer Alex Sanchez based his work on Robbins’ ground-breaking choreography, including the oddly out-of-nowhere dream ballet to “Somewhere.”
But for me, the music made the show.
With two exceptions, that is, and I’m not the first to be bothered by two light-hearted songs coming at the wrong point in the play. In Laurents’ Broadway script – but not the film version – “I Feel Pretty” and “Gee, Officer Krupke” come after the rumble, not before. That means they’re singing away happily while two boys have just been killed. Laurents insisted the tension needed to lighten in advance of the tragic ending.
Maria’s giddy “I Feel Pretty” does set up the blow – implausibly brief, as Allyn played it – of learning Tony murdered her brother (she very quickly opts to keep her allegiance to Tony). But when the Jets sing the totally silly “Krupke,” they already know two men are dead, and their goody-two-shoes antics become downright jarring. The cast seems to drop character in order to master the song and dance. We should be seeing these hyped-up, scared-to-death accessories to murder straining to pull one over on the cops. But they came off less like threats to society and more like triple-threats auditioning for “Glee.”
Love and youth may make “West Side Story” soar, but the narrative is driven by hate, guns and switchblades. I’m not sure Riverside ever hones an edge on this butter knife of a performance, but it does serve up a delicious spread of dance and song, for certain.