West Side Story Reviews

Kelly from Chicago

EXPECTATIONS EXCEEDED

I saw this production last night in Chicago and was thrilled. West Side Story is my all time favorite movie and musical, so I know it by heart and was looking forward to seeing it performed on stage for the first time. It wasn't perfect by any means, but the strength of the story and the score are pretty hard to screw up. With the exception of Tony, I thought everyone was very compelling. Anita and Bernardo (who was smoking hot) stole the show for me, and the vocals & choreography were almost flawless. One confusing aspect was the placement of the Officer Krupke and Cool numbers. Since my only experience with the story is the film, I didnt know which one was following the true script. Officer Krupke seems too lighthearted and comical a number for the Jets to be singing right after losing Riff, and Cool was moved to the scene before the war council with the Sharks, not as emotionally charged as the movie version following Riff's death. Overall, I highly recommend it regardless.

Anonymous from Albuquerque, New Mexico

LOVED IT!

Really enjoyed it - must see

ORPHEUM AND WEST SIDE STORY FAN from Phoenix, Arizona

OFFICER KRUPKE SEGMENT DETRACTED FROM 5 STAR PERFORMANCE

ENJOYED THE PLAY AND THE MUSIC IN PHX PERFORMANCE, BUT MUST AGREE THAT "OFFICER KRUPKE' SEGMENT ADDED UNNECESSARY GESTURES WHICH DISTRACTED FROM THE DANCE ROUTINE AND THE PLAY IN GENERAL. THE PERFORMANCE AS A WHOLE WAS VERY GOOD... ACTOR WHO PLAYED TONY HAD BEAUTIFUL VOICE AND ACTING BY EVERYONE WAS STAR QUALITY. ORCHESTRA DID AN OUTSTANDING JOB ALSO. JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND THE NEED TO ADD ANY VULGARITY, HOWEVER MINOR, AS A FORM OF UPDATING A CLASSIC.

JWNH from Boston

NOT AS BAD AS OTHERS SAY

I saw WSS last night at the Colonial and was not disappointed. The supporting cast and incredible dancing carried the show and made it a great overall experience. I did feel that the size of stage was slightly confining but they did a great job performing Robbins' choreography. It's tough to find performers talented enough to sing, dance and act to the level that this musical requires and while Tony was not a strong lead and I agree that the chemistry was weak creating some awkwardness with Tony and Maria, Ewoldt's voice was terrific. Aravena as Anita was fantastic. People must realize this is a period peace and so the gang members appearing to be "tough" while performing Robbins' balletic choreography requires suspended belief and imagination; as does the acceptance of the introduction of Spanish into the script...don't most people know these songs by heart anyway?? The Spanish added to the play's authenticity. Aside from weak but acceptable acting by Tony, Riff & Maria, great show!

Lardebame from Boston

MY FIRST REVIEW!

This was my third time seeing West Side Story on stage. Once a couple of years ago in Boston (my favorite), last year on Broadway, and then again last night! I have to say that this production was my least favorite. The leads were good, some beautiful notes by Maria! Anita also good. The actors playing the Jets were my least favorite, over acting and not believable. The actor playing Riff was miscast, not believable at all as the "leader". He did have a good singing voice though. The sets were boring. This version was a little different than I'd seen before. Some of that was good, some not so good. The Spanish language aspect is good, the emotion translated so that I could understand. When I saw the Broadway cast, they sang & acted much better but I felt they were just going through the motions. This cast is giving their all but not as talented. I give them an "A" for effort but think the overacting (Jets) need to tone it down a bit.

Bryan Masson from Fort Worth, Texas

WEAK ORCHESTRA KEPT "STORY" FROM SOARING

The cast was great and the show happened to have the necessary punch at the most important points to make it. In Fort Worth, it was very hard to hear the spoken word. Much of the clever dialogue was missed. Some sung text was lost as well, especially in the fun set pieces, such as "I Feel Pretty" and "Officer Krupky." "America" was almost totally lost - the most fun number. The orchestra, however, is what kept the show from being a total success. They played with zero focus. Rhythmic vitality was mostly missing. There was no edge and no rhythmic drive. You could see the cast trying to push it up a few notches to make it work. As I said, the emotion was there at the major points, but large swaths were sleepy time for me, even with all of the activity going on on the stage. My tickets were given to me and were worth $100.00. This was like high quality community theater, not Broadway and definitely not worth $100.00 a pop.

Cjbb from Detroit, Michigan

GREAT THEATER SHOW BUT PROBLEMS

West Side Story, a classic show. This is a musical with great singing and dancing. A Romeo and Juliet story. Problems: they have increased the amount of Spanish, this is the United States, this is an American play, we speak English. if it was playing in a predominantly Spanish speaking country, where few spoke English, would you add more English just to make it more relevant? We found this very irritating and it took away something from our experience as no one in our party of six spoke Spanish. I would take my mother but not children under the age of 14. While understanding the reality of living in an inner city environment, some scenes were were too sexually blatant and in bad taste for theater viewing. The rape scene was very well done and not visually explicit. Scene 2, Act 2 - "The Neighborhood" was especially heavy with sexual innuendos and inappropriate actions on the part of the male actors.

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