A stage jammed with more than 30 trim, talented dancers, a 15-piece orchestra doing Leonard Bernstein's instantly recognizable score, a couple of memorable scenic pieces and a respectful interpretation of the 1957 reinterpretation of Romeo and Juliet, tweaked only very slightly, if at all -- the touring company of West Side Story delivers exactly what the American public expects. The enterprise also provides an enlightening illustration of the difference between a film -- who hasn't seen and been impressed by the 1961 motion picture? -- and live musical theatre.
The vast spaces of the 2900-seat Bass concert hall are a challenge to any performance -- one indication is that you can rent binoculars at the concession stand before the show. Even in the mid-orchestra seats provided for press representatives, the actors in solo and duo scenes seemed alarmingly far away, as the mind's eye compared them to the vivid images of Jerome Robbins' 1961 film.
The excitement and the spectacle of the dance scenes made up for that. No film can give the scope and the dazzle of Robbins' large dance scenes, and the choreography reproduced by Joey McKneely for this staging delivers excitement, humor and far more action than your eye can follow. The show springs to life with the scene of the dance at the gym. Rival crowds, Jets and Sharks, dressed spiffy and swirly, brightly colored, challenging, teasing, frolicking and bounding with energy, contrast with one another, with the doltish adults, and eventually with the starstruck lovers Maria and Tony as they perceive one another across the full breadth of the stage.
The biggest applause came for the iconic I Like to Be in America, the teasing, stamping, celebratory number featuring the sassy, worldly Anita (Michelle Aravena, who got the most exuberant applause at the curtain call). Seven women dancers fill that broad stage with their banter and movement.Read more and view video at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
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