Westside Story

While an interesting appropriation of Shakespeare’s infamous ‘Romeo and Juliet’, ‘Westside Story’ can, in no way, replace the original. The story tells of an American boy and Puerto-Rican immigrant girl who meet and fall in love in the mean streets of New York, where their respective ‘gangs’ are in the middle of a turf war. Obviously, the romance is doomed from the beginning as Tony and Maria struggle to legitimise their love in an intolerant world.

This is an interesting premise for an adaptation of Shakespeare’s feuding families, and one that should, like the Montague and Capulet war, resonate throughout time and geography. And yet, the version of the Broadway classic that I saw at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre, seemed dated and uneven throughout. While the dancing was superb – performed in a style that my limited dancing vocabulary could only describe as ‘contemporary ballet’ for the 21st century – the rest of the production seemed to have been left behind in the 1950s when the play debuted.

Furthermore I suspect that the leads were chosen not for their acting prowess, but rather for their abilities to hold a really high and long tune. This would be completely acceptable if they were, say, auditioning for a choir; but one would assume that a theatre production of this calibre could find two people who can sing and act equally well. Josh Piterman and Julie Goodwin’s portrayal of the ill-fated lovers was flat, apathetic and without any real passion.

The only stand-out performance was from Alinta Chidzey who plays Maria’s sassy and fully-Americanised confident Anita. Her performance was charismatic, witty and full of biting humour. In fact, she received the loudest applause at the end of the show.

Perhaps I’m being too harsh, as I’m subconsciously comparing this production with ‘Wicked’, which, in my mind, cannot be beaten. Having said that, I suspect that no-one was supposed to laugh when Maria realised that Tony was dead. Well, I did. [Image from http://www.theaustralian.com/]