West Side Story

West Side Story, is a well-known musical, based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, depicting the forbidden love story between Tony and Maria. 

Weldon Theatre School had a tremendous cast of 56 young people. All of the lead characters provided strong performances with flawless vocals, acting and dancing. Elijah Bultitude as Tony looked effortless when singing some of the most difficult musical theatre songs. Isabel Shone played Maria with a naive innocence. Both Elijah and Isabel’s vocals blended beautifully together, especially in “One Hand, One Heart”. Alfie Pringle as Riff brought swagger and a coolness to the character and Anita (Rosie Robb) and Maria vocally complimented each other in “A Boy Like That/I Have a Love”, showing Antia’s protective side and Maria’s stubbornness to continue her relationship with Tony. The main principal characters were well complimented by the large cast of Jets and Sharks. 

All of the musical numbers, directed by Sue Bond, were flawless and performed to backing tracks. A couple of standout numbers vocally were “I Feel Pretty” and “The Balcony Scene/Tonight”. When the songs are performed to this standard, it’s really easy to forget the cast are young people.  

The choreography was provided by Abbie McLellan. It was high energy and played to the strengths of the cast. A standout dance number was “Cool”, with Alfie Pringle leading the Jets in this number. All of the dancers moved as one and gave it their all throughout. It was pleasing to see nods to the original well-known choreography in numbers like “Dance at the Gym” yet adding an updated modern touch. Although it was a matinee performance, the whole cast performed with such high energy and didn’t miss a beat. They also looked like they were having the best of times when performing “Gee, Officer Krupke”. 

The cast were well directed by Megan Jones, using the space of the stage dynamically. The set was static but provided different levels which were used to their advantage, such as the fire escape outside of Maria’s window. I particularly liked Megan’s vision of Riff and Bernado being carried offstage by the cast on stretchers during the interval following the characters being killed, adding to the magic of live theatre. 

Although the lighting was dark, it was still possible to see what was happening and added to the atmosphere of the show. For majority of the show, there were no sound issues however, when microphones were not on, it was still possible to hear every line and didn’t detract from the overall performance. 

The costumes had been thought out carefully. During the daytime scenes, it was easy to distinguish between the Jets and Sharks and during the dance scene at the gym, the Jets and Sharks were determined by either a red or black band on their wrist, subtly identifying which gang they belonged to. The costumes were all in keeping with the era and complimented the characters’ personalities. I was pleased to see that the cast were wearing soft shoes, preventing lots of background noise during dance numbers. 

West Side Story has such a sad ending, but it was hard not to walk away with a smile as I had been thoroughly entertained by the talented cast. They truly gave it their all and must have been exhausted by the end of the show. 

 

 

 

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