West Side Story at Toronto Centre for the Arts: Review

The first question you want to ask about a touring production of West Side Story is: how's the dancing? In the first national tour of the recent Broadway revival that opened tonight at the Toronto Centre for the Arts, the answer is: pretty good.

Sometimes a touring production has a shopworn look, but this one (a taut two-and-a-half hours) seemed crisp from the dissonant opening snarl of the orchestra (a respectable 20 pieces, including strings) through some of the most iconic (and demanding) dance numbers ever. This production restages the original Jerome Robbins choreography that has been imitated so often that every kick and lunge seems familiar. But the (for its time) groundbreaking "street ballet" is still exciting, robust and virile.

The storyline (based on Romeo and Juliet, as everyone knows) is sadly as potent a lesson as it was in Shakespeare's day. The virulent poison of racism infects not only the youngsters in the streets but also the cops who are supposed to be keeping order, and the few voices of reason are laughed down and abused as the violence spirals out of control to its inevitable climax. (One measure of the enduring effectiveness of the show: when the scrapping gang rivals Bernardo and Riff snapped out their switchblades in what was up to that point supposed to be an honourable fistfight, a woman a few seats down my row gasped loudly in spontaneous shock.)

Of course, the music is great too. It's become so much part of the popular imagination that even the opening theme for The Simpsons shamelessly rips it off. Leads Ross Lekites (Tony) and Evy Ortiz (Maria) – pictured above – have the vocal chops to really make the most of their big songs: "Maria" (Lekites takes his time over some really strong high notes in that one), "Tonight", "Somewhere", and (for Maria) "I Have a Love".

There were a couple of offbeat aspects to the production. The first, translating some of the dialogue and song lyrics into Spanish, made sense most of the time and added a certain feeling of authenticity to the action in Maria's home. Once or twice it was jarring. For example, when Chino arrives to break the news to Maria that there has been a gang fight, he speaks Spanish, but when he tells her the worst part of the story ("He killed your brother!"), he switches to English. This is clearly so the audience understands what's going on, but it makes no sense for the character in the context.

Also (a very minor quibble), the choice has been made to give the rival Jets and Sharks gang colours, a detail that didn't figure in the original staging, to the best of my knowledge. In the case of the Puerto Rican Sharks, it's fairly understated, but the jets wear orange accessories (especially cloth strips used as headbands, neckties and armbands, as in the photo above) that don't look quite in keeping with the rest of the design; it almost feels as though each cast member was told to go out and find something orange for their character to wear. But you know? As soon as they started dancing again I forgot about the colours.

Finally, I must say that whoever hung and focused the lights did a bang-up job, and the actors were admirably hitting their marks considering how new they are to this stage; this is a show that has a lot of lighting cues in which a bright white pool of light suddenly bathes one or two performers in order to pick them out from the rest of the action – most critically of course when Tony and Maria first spot each other on the dance floor. Every single one seemed spot-on (so to speak), and no one was lost in shadow or (almost worse) in darkness from the knees down.

The Dancap presentation of West Side Story runs at the Toronto Centre for the Arts until June 3. At the moment, tickets are only available as part of a subscription with the upcoming Beauty and the Beast and Million Dollar Quartet. To find out more, call 416-640-0172 (toll-free 1-866-950-7469) or visit Dancap.

Photos: ©Carol Rosegg 2011 – The First National Tour of West Side Story.