Watching "West Side Story" is a parade of mixed emotions.

There's joy over the Leonard Bernstein score and the Stephen Sondheim lyrics, still powerful after almost 40 years, and there's excitement at the Jerome Robbins choreography, re-created by Kevin Backstrom. There's pleasure at some good performances, and sadness to realize that so little progress has been made in social justice, relationships, understanding and acceptance of those who are different.

Of course, you can take things back another 400 years, to William Shakespeare, and things haven't moved very much since "Romeo and Juliet," which serves loosely as the basis of Arthur Laurent's original book.

The second-largest opening night crowd of The Muny season, 10,959, sat through enervating heat and humidity to see an occasionally ragged production Monday night.

Of course, the weather might have been a factor, as several dancers seemed to be suffering in the final scenes. Speaking of suffering, Christine Toy, as Maria, wore a bandage on her right thigh, hampering her dancing from time to time. It also caused Lewis Cleale, as Tony, to use extra care on some of the lifts, making them look awkward.

There was an unconsciously funny moment at the end of the first act when Michael Gruber, as the already dead Riff, had to roll a foot or two to escape the closing boom, and his effort brought the largest laugh of the evening. Microphone work was erratic at the start, and when Rommel Gopez, as Chino, shot Cleale, he apparently shot him right through the mike, which died shortly before the character.

The musical dates to 1957, and I winced at some of the language, especially when someone shouted, "Dig that! And dig it the most!" Once common usage, now boringly offensive.

Cleale showed a strong voice, as did Toy, and Luis Perez was a powerful presence as Bernardo, kingpin of the Sharks. I enjoyed Susann Fletcher, as Anita, Bernardo's girl, who had more chance to show her talent - and did - than when she was here a month ago as stepsister Portia in "Cinderella." Her wig looked absurd, but then I remembered that a lot of 1950s wigs looked absurd, and perhaps that's the effect the director wanted. Whether he wanted it or not, it was achieved by several of the Sharks' girls.

The ill-fated love story involves Maria and Tony; she's the sister of the leader of the Sharks (Puerto Rican immigrants), and he's trying to retire from the Jets (native New Yorkers). By the way, this was before the New York Jets or the American Football League or Joe Namath, though the team might have been named for the gang.

There's the usual amount of juvenile nonsense, posing and preening, but the Sharks resent Tony's interest in Maria, and a "rumble" (another archaic term) is planned. Maria persuades Tony to try to prevent it, and while it seems he is about to, he fails, which is a good thing, because otherwise we wouldn't have a second act.

The music came through nicely, and the Sharks' girls, led by Fletcher, stood out in "America." Toy's "I Feel Pretty," and Cleale's "Maria" were high spots, and the Jets' rendition of "Gee, Officer Krupke" bordered being over the top but barely escaped.

Four local actors - Joneal Joplin, Alan Knoll, Tom Murray and Rich Pisarkiewicz - were fine as, respectively, the pharmacist, the man in charge of the dance, the police sergeant and the famed Officer Krupke. Knoll was especially funny.

"West Side Story," long and occasionally tedious, runs through Sunday to wrap The Muny's 77th season.


main West Side Story 1995 page