West Side Story has been part of the soundtrack to my life for as long as I can remember thanks to my parents’ record collection (Johnny Mathis’ rendition of “Maria” springs to mind) and O Level music classes in the 1980s which included several works inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Knowing that the rhythm “I want to be in A-me-ri-ca” (six quavers followed by three crotchets) is called a huapango helped me pass the exam. So, it was with some anticipation that I arrived at Leicester’s state-of-the-art Curve Theatre for tonight’s performance.
The scene is set straight away: it’s 1957 and immigrants from Puerto Rico to New York are coming in for some harsh treatment from local gang The Jets who justify their behaviour by claiming the “PRs” have put some of their families out of work. The immigrants are drawn into the protective embrace of a Puerto Rican gang, The Sharks and it all goes downwards from there. Ellen Kane’s choreography is electrifying from the start; such is the energy demanded that we know this young cast is going to be working hard for the next two hours.
Tony (Jamie Muscato) has found work and is on the fringe of The Jets these days, but Riff (Ronan Burns) is convinced he can be persuaded back as his lieutenant for a one-off “rumble” to sort things out between the two gangs for good. It takes some doing but once a Jet, always a Jet, and so Tony goes along to the dance where the arrangements are to be made. Here he meets and falls in love with Maria (Adriana Ivelisse), a Puerto Rican who has been in America all of a month. This doesn’t go down well with her family.
Muscato’s performance is exquisite and fully three-dimensional as he adds an extra layer of vulnerability to a character already torn between his work and his gang loyalties. He has a fantastic voice, capable of seamlessly shifting from aggression to tenderness – and back again. Muscato and Ivelisse develop the chemistry between their characters and quickly they become devoted to each other. Despite being the Jets’ “Lieutenant” Tony tries to stop the rumble, an act of great courage which goes tragically wrong and results in the death of Riff and of Maria’s brother Bernardo (Jonathan Hermosa-Lopez). Tony’s fate is sealed from this point despite the lovers’ dreams of escaping together to somewhere quieter.
There is so much to this production. Michael Taylor’s set design evocatively recreates the life-expired concrete and rubbish tips of the grottier parts of New York. The corrupt policeman Schrank (Darren Bennett) and his inept colleague Officer Krupke (Christopher Wright) represent the largely impotent forces of law and order, often to comedic effect, whilst Carly Mercedes Dyer gives a glittering performance as Bernardo’s lover and Maria’s friend Anita.
It is Anita’s lie which finally undoes poor Tony. Sent by Maria to deliver a message to him she encounters ill-treatment at the hands of some of the Jets and tells them instead that Chino (Damian Buhagiar) found out about Maria and Tony’s love and shot Maria in disgust. Tony goes looking for Chino but Chino finds him first…
This is first-rate entertainment; the acting, singing and dancing are all brilliant and everyone involved deserved the ovation at the end, but it is a tragedy and three characters have lost their lives. Leonard Bernstein’s music and Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics invite us to reflect upon themes that are just as relevant to us now as they were in the 1950s, if not more so. What kind of welcome do we in our prosperous society offer to vulnerable migrants from far poorer and less-stable places? And why are so many of our young people driven into the malign embrace of criminal gangs? On the latter point the excellent programme contains an article by Leicestershire’s Chief Constable outlining the measures his force is taking to encourage youngsters to eschew the gangster lifestyle and do something more positive with their lives instead.
A superb production with a vital message – do get to see it if you can. It’s on at the Curve until January 11th.
Reviewer - Ian Simpson
on - 28/11/19
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