Josefina Scaglione and Matt Cavenaugh in West Side Story (Photo: Joan Marcus)
cast list
George Akram, Nicholas Barasch, Steve Bassett, Joshua Buscher, Isaac Calpito, Mike Cannon, Matt Cavenaugh, Peter Chursin, Kyle Coffman, Lindsay Dunn, Yurel Echezarreta, Cody Green, Joey Haro, Eric Hatch, Manuel Herrera, Curtis Holbrook, Marina Lazzaretto, Yanira Marin, Michael Mastro, Mileyka Mateo, Kaitlin Mesh, Kat Nejat, Karen Olivo, Pamela Otterson, Danielle Polanco, Sam Rogers, Michael Rosen, Amy Ryerson, Jennifer Sanchez, Manuel Santos, Josefina Scaglione, Lee Sellars, Tro Shaw, Ryan Steele, Tanairi Sade Vazquez, Greg Vinkler
directed by
Arthur Laurents
Fifty-two years after its Broadway premiere in 1957, West Side Story is back, this time partly in Spanish.
Many will know the show, one of the most popular of the twentieth century, from its 1961 film version, directed by Robert Wise, but this time the show's bookwriter Arthur Laurents is at the helm, eager to share his directorial vision of what West Side should look and feel like - a world of urban turmoil and stolen glances on fire escapes, where members of warring gangs (the Sharks and the Jets), though they still dance, look like they might stand a chance at cutting you.
The concept for this revival was first suggested to Laurents by his late partner Tom Hatcher, who at one time worked on a Spanish language translation of the show. The idea arose to have the Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks speak in their native Spanish as a way of humanizing characters who had always seemed to Laurents somewhat less sympathetic than the Anglo Jets.
I Feel Pretty is now Siento Hermosa (lyricist Stephen Sondheim never liked his uncharacteristic lyrics for the song as they were), and A Boy Like That has become Un Hombre Asi thanks to translations by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator-composer-lyricist of last season's In the Heights. While most of the show remains untouched, exchanges between Puerto Rican characters are mostly in Spanish. Don't worry though; nothing is lost in translation. Key phrases remain in English.
On the whole, this helps to play up the tension between the gangs. The Sharks, who have always lurked in the background, less three-dimensional than the Jets, are more empathetic. It's much easier to sense the disconnect between the disparate factions. If the Jets can't even make heads or tails of what the Sharks are saying, it's easy to believe they'll eventually stumble into a fatal misunderstanding.
Laurents's vision is at once more vicious and more romantic. There's a sense in this production that an atmosphere of real menace is astir in the air. The cage match-style rumble feels even more visceral than it does on film, even taking into account the benefit of closeup shots. At the same time, however, the ballet during the dance at the gym is beautifully, evocatively staged. As Maria spins center stage, two curtains of multicolored flowers descend, injecting a dazzlingly light visual element into an otherwise spare concrete environment.
As for the cast, Argentinian actress Josefina Scaglione is a major find as Maria. She possesses a crystalline clear singing voice and an openness of spirit that enlivens the production from the moment she's on-stage.
Unfortunately, the same can't be said for her leading man, Matt Cavenaugh as Tony. Though Cavenaugh's singing voice occasionally soars, it's full of too many vibrato-twinged flourishes. And, laden down by a strange, accent, he never seems to sink into the role of Tony with the same transparency as his leading lady.
The rest of the cast is a joy to watch. As they pulsate to the rhythms of Leonard Bernstein's brilliant dance music, it becomes clear that the the influence of West Side Story's original director-choreographer Jerome Robbins, whose dances are reproduced here by Joey McKneely, is still very much in effect. The fireball of an actress Karen Olivo is a particular highlight as Anita. Excellent in last season's In the Heights, she brings a saucy, sensual attitude to the role that adds to the production's sex appeal.
Though Laurents's new production departs in several ways from the original, it's by no means a radical reinterpration. Rather, it's a slightly different view, like the sensation one gets tilting a brilliant kaleidescope in a new and different direction. It's got the same familiar brassy score (even though a few of the songs' lyrics are now in Spanish), and the story remains intact.
Still, shockingly, this production manages to inject the musical with a sense of relevance it might have lacked in the hands of one less confident than Laurents, who knows this material like the back of his hand. The New York City reflected in the show's 1950s sensibilities is a distant memory now, razed as part of the ebb and flow of urban development and gentrification, but what makes this production as effective as it is today is the fact that the story - particularly the central love story - still rings true.
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