West Side Story – Wimbledon and Touring

West Side Story runs at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London before continuing its tour

West Side Story runs at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London until 30 November and continues touring until 19 July, 2014.

Any fears that the touring version of West Side Story – one of the all time-great musicals – was going to be a pale imitation of the internationally-cast Sadler’s Wells show that received stellar reviews in August were soon put to rest at Wimbledon.

This is the fifth leg of a marathon tour which keeps getting extended and is currently due to finish in mid-July in Canterbury. By that time 20 provincial theatres will have seen the Bernstein-Sondheim-Laurents-Robbins masterpiece, and if anyone comes away from it not having had a good time, then there has to be something seriously wrong with them.

After a troubled start when the male lead, Louis Maskell, got injured and had to miss the first two ports of call, Liverpool and Sunderland, the new UK cast is now nicely bedded in and very much fit for purpose.

West Side Story has been a huge part of my musical theatre passion ever since I bought the record back in the late 1950s, and then feasted on its groundbreaking brilliance with my own eyes when it transferred from Broadway to London’s Her Majesty’s Theatre and beguiled audiences for 1,039 performances from 1958-61.

For the current tour, it’s the same director as the Sadler’s Wells production, Joey McKneely, mainly the same musicians, the same brooding set, the same magic and, of course, the same, unforgettable songs: ‘Maria’, ‘Tonight’, ‘America’, ‘Cool’, ‘One Hand One Heart’, ‘I Feel Pretty’, ‘Somewhere’, ‘A Boy Like That’ and the one hilarious showstopper ‘Gee, Officer Krupke’. All still as fresh today as they were 55 years ago and the story of tribal hatred and violence every bit as relevant.

West Side Story’s success hinges on the Romeo and Juliet leads Tony and Maria and the vibrantly balletic dancing. Both are in very good hands. The happily fit-again Maskell received a minute’s applause for a ‘Maria’ that may have been sung better or more meaningfully elsewhere but I have my doubts.

Maskell may not have a huge stage presence when he acts but as soon as he sings, wow! Not surprisingly, he is another off the dazzling Guildford School of Acting production line.

And Katie Hall, with her glorious soprano and unerring Puerto Rican accent, is a truly wonderful Maria, conveying all the longing of a teenager tasting love for the very first time. Her duets with Maskell in ‘Tonight’ and ’One Hand, One Heart’ are beautiful and moving.

Also right on the money is Javier Cid’s menacing and imperiously protective Bernardo but Dialenga Scott’s fiery Anita occasionally lets dialect obscure clarity.

The great thing is that even after all these years West Side Story has the power, the relevance and the music to keep pulling them in. The first two nights at Wimbledon were virtual sell-outs and bookings for the rest of the run easily outstrip other comparable musical productions there.

Long may it continue.

Jeremy Chapman

Readers may also be interested in:

West Side Story – Sadler’s Wells, London