West Side Story

~~It has been a long time since Sutton Arts Theatre staged a musical, and West Side Story was a very ambitious one to commence with.  Dexter Whitehead’s production was full of life and the large cast gave it their all.  With The Sharks facing The Jets the action was full on.
George Stuart as Tony had a wonderful voice and a good stage presence.  He was well supported by the rest of the cast including Phebe Jackson as Maria, again a wonderful voice and a convening Spanish accent.  I really enjoyed hearing them sing ‘Somewhere’ and ‘Tonight’.
Maison Kelley played the leader of the Jets, Riff who sang well, especially in the comedy song ‘Officer Krupke’.  Richard Haines as Bernardo, leader of The Sharks looked tall and imposing.  Sarah Haines as Anna, Bernardos girlfriend, really sang well in ‘America’.  Again a wonderful powerful voice.  Good support from James-Mateo-Salt and Jacob Kholi and from Emily Armstrong as ‘Anybody’s’. Good chorus work and Anna Forster as choreographer worked hard with all of this large cast. 
Sutton Arts set builders worked hard on this, designed by John Islip with artwork by Mark Nattras.  It was simple but effective, but you would expect nothing more from this theatre group.  Costumes looked good and the lighting design suited the mood of the production.  There were a few hic-cups with sound but I am sure that this would be ironed out during the run,  The orchestra, under the direction of Tom Brookes sounded good, the only problem being that they had to be in the Charter room and the music piped through to the auditorium, but it did work and was hardly noticed.
 

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