West Side Story

“West Side Story” has brilliant music, by Leonard Bernstein and great lyrics from Stephen Sondheim. The show has many iconic musical numbers in the score along with energetic movement and dance, making it a very challenging show to produce, so I must congratulate “Maghull Musical Theatre Company” who more than did justice to this outstanding piece of theatre by producing a very fine entertaining show. This romantic musical update of Shakespeare’s 'Romeo and Juliet revolves around a turf war and tensions between two rival teenage gangs the Jets and the Sharks in New York’s Manhattan Hell's Kitchen and two lovers from the opposing sides who cross the chasm between the two sides, I have to say the story is still very relevant today. This production was directed by Betty Hall who had at her disposal an excellent talented cast which included Matt Casson who made a very commendable Tony, and who was also the epitome of the handsome leading man, Kay Williams was excellent as Maria her voice was a lovely coloratura soprano which really suited Bernstein's score, Matt and Kay also made a very believable romantic leading couple. Jess D’ Silva gave a first-rate spirited performance as Anita and she also has a lovely rich singing voice, while Lee Ashall complimented her very well as her boyfriend Bernardo, Maria’s brother and leader of the Sharks, and for the opposing gang Gavin Hodson gave a very believable performance as Riff the leader of the Jets. There were also other very good principle performances from Peter Brennan as Action and Alex Mckillop as Chino. The principle cast were well supported by the smaller and cameo roles, also the ensemble is very important in this show as some of them have named parts and play an important role in the success of the production, here they produced a number of interesting characterizations which were played very well with confidence. I must also say well done to Suzanne Morris who sang “Somewhere” beautifully. Generally diction and clarity of words was excellent meaning the story could be followed easily, and all American accents were good and were maintained throughout the performance.

Choreography was by Alexandra Ashall and Betty Hall and is a very important aspect in this show, it was effective and just right for the production and was mostly executed excellently by the cast for example in the numbers “America” and “Gee Officer Krupke” which were well received by the audience. The band Led by Musical Director Malcolm Fallows played Bernstein’s music very well and supported the cast securely. I must also say well done to Chorus Master and Rehearsal pianist David Wheeler

The set and lighting was atmospheric making a good platform for the cast to work on although there did appear to be an occasional problem with the microphones however this did not detract from my enjoyment of the show as I could still hear everything from the stage very clearly. Costumes were spot-on and added to the atmosphere and the production. Congratulations to all the backstage crew for a job well done.

I must congratulate Betty Hall and everyone involved in this very exciting enjoyable production thank you for inviting my friend and me we had a lovely entertaining evening and I hope to see you for your next production.
 

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