West Side Story – Bishopsgate Institute

West Side Story continues at the Bishopsgate Institute, London until 1 July 2018.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Since West Side Story opened on Broadway in 1957, there’sbeen a tendency to curb some of the excitement and drama of this groundbreaking show. This was apparent early on in Robert Wise’s film from 1961 that offered a glossier and coarser alternative to the more realistic presentation on the stage to the 1984 recording with Bernstein conducting with voices from the opera house in the principal roles.

Now, in one fell swoop West Side Story returns to its roots, re-creating the visceral excitement of the original London production at Her Majesty’s Theatre that I experienced as a school boy.

This production in the Great Hall at Bishopsgate Institute captivated the audience from the start. The orchestra of 30 players is placed at the far end of the Hall and the production is staged in the round with great success, allowing space for the dynamic dance sequences between the Jets and the Sharks.

The show’s choreography, based presumably on the original work by Jerome Robbins, is by Guy Salim, who with his team, cut loose with each tempo change in the score. The dancers are unleashed in all directions from the bee-bop ‘Cool’ to Tony and Maria’s dream sequence with the ensemble dressed in white.

The director Toby Hine has filled his production with many imaginative strokes. Who can forget that initial scene where Tony and Maria, perched on top of moving ladders, glide across the floor from opposite ends of the auditorium, eyes catching for the first time, before drifting away.

Or that explosive start to the ‘Dance at the Gym’ which begins in shadows, then is emblazoned in light. The eerie final scene, with figures lost in thought, is handled to perfection, the orchestra, hesitatingly, drawing the show to a conclusion.

Emily McDouall, as Maria, enchants us in ‘I Feel Pretty’, then turns the full might of her vocal powers on ‘A Boy Like That’, an outburst of angst delivered with a raw passion. She is equally at home in the song’s resolution, ‘I Have a Love’, and earlier in ‘Tonight’.

James Gower-Smith, as Tony, makes her a fine partner,whether in a challenging ballad such as ‘Maria’ or ‘Something’s Coming’, a song of a dreamer, with a street rhythm undercutting the tune.

Victoria Greenway’s Anita, spares nothing in her spat with Maria in ‘A Boy Like That’. Earlier she leadsa rousing ‘America’, her word colouring matching the vibrant colours in her petrol blue dress.

Christopher Georgiou, as her brother Bernardo, in another natty outfit, gives a masterclass in mood swings. Strong man Riff, Luke Leahy, who leads the ‘Jet Song’and ‘Cool’, is right in his part, an accomplished singer and mover. I’d forgotten that Riff operatesas a quasi-astronaut, dividing his gang into ace-men and rocket-men!

The ensemble singing in every situation is spot on with the gleeful ‘Gee, Officer Krupke’, led by Joshua Yeardley’s Action, a riot of playfulness.

Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’ West Side Story is a musical in the true sense of the word. The dialogue is sparse and when it comes there are a few times when the temperature drops and one wishes that Bernstein had composed a through sung piece, which in its way is saying that conductor Ben Ferguson and his orchestra are on terrific form.

Under his baton, the band’s ability to switch at the flick of a wrist, from traditional Broadway song to the classical-jazz scoring in the instrumental writing, is little short of breathtaking.

It is right that they have the last word with the ‘Tonight Quintet’ and ‘Mambo’, the zest and precision of their playing sending the audience out on a high. West Side Story demands great singing and dancing. Both are on show.

Adrian Edwards