SEATTLE – The musical West Side Story turns 50 this year, but it doesn’t look a day past ageless.
The show’s themes of racism, gang wars, bad parenting and inadequate role models play on today as timeless reminders that we’ve come so far, but maybe not far enough.
The time is past when tough guys wore ties. Now they wear saggy jeans. Street life today means handguns and semi-automatics, not switchblades. But the bonds of the gang are as strong. Gang members won’t utter these words, but they may well believe that their turf is small but it’s all they’ve got.
And today people still, thank goodness, fall in love in the kind of way that makes you float 12 feet above the ground and feel pretty – and is so overpowering that there is nothing you can do about it.
The 5th Avenue Theatre couldn’t have delivered a better gift to its patrons when deciding to present this once-in-a-lifetime anniversary production of West Side Story. This rare version that re-creates the original Jerome Robbins choreography with a huge cast and full orchestra shines like candles on a birthday cake.
The show is pure passion. The dancing sublime. The 5th Avenue collaborated with Seattle’s Spectrum Dance Theatre to re-create the 1957 Broadway production. The result is mesmerizing, and you may find yourself holding your breath in anticipation of the first classic number, “Jet Song.” By the time the kids arrive at the gym for the big dance, which is all about chiffon, innuendo and strobe lights, the tension and sexuality is as steamy as Hell’s Kitchen in July.
But by this time it’s also clear that nothing good will come from the chance meeting of the main characters, Tony and Maria. The unleashed hate between the rival gangs of the Jets and the Sharks steamrolls through the story, fueled by evil Lt. Schrank who is at least liberal in the fact that he hates all equally, and flattens any hope that these lovers will survive.
The giants of musical theater, however, knew West Side Story couldn’t be all about delivering this sad message. Genius librettist Stephen Sondheim, a relative unknown before he wrote the words to this musical icon, drizzled delight among the depression with songs like “I Feel Pretty,” “America” and “Gee, Officer Krupke.”
Those tunes brought out the best in a dynamic cast. Maegan McConnell’s operatic gifts as Maria raised goosebumps. Anita, as played by Manoly Farrell, was a standout, and Louis Hobson, coming off the red-hot role of Che in Village Theatre’s “Evita,” showed us his more moody side as Tony.
As some of the characters try to move away from the restraints of prejudice, still the hate steamrolled along. The rumble must go on, and it does, behind a huge fence. The audience watched, as if watching caged animals.
The set, so perfectly subdued in an ugly tenement brown, is stunning in this symbolism of how trapped these kids are behind the cyclone. Finally, the hate wins out. This Juliet can’t keep her Romeo.
The ending is as purely tragic as the original West Side Story. Nothing here gets neatly wrapped up in bow. There is a light though, off in the distance. The kids walk toward it and we hope they find their way.
Happy birthday “West Side Story.” Many happy returns.
Arts writer Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424 or goffredo@heraldnet.com.
Where to see it
“West Side Story”: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays with matinees on Saturdays at 2 p.m. and Sundays at 1:30 p.m., through June 17. The 5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 Fifth Ave., Seattle. $24 to $75, 206-625-1900, www.5thavenue.org
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