A Great Celebration
West Side Story
Newcastle
Tyne Theatre & Opera House
Wednesday
20th – Saturday 23rd September 2017
Book:
Arthur Laurents
Music:
Leonard Bernstein
Lyrics:
Stephen Sondenheim
This show
closes on the 23rd September - exactly 150years to the day since the
theatre opened. The Tyne Theatre and Opera House has an interesting history
throughout its 150 years - however its most recent events are interesting in
themselves. The charity that owns the building has now run the theatre since
2015. Slowly they are ploughing back the monies made in shows like West Side
Story into restoring the grade 1 listed building. There are no council grants or arts funding
for this venue and hence progress with the restoration takes place at the pace
that the funds allow. Hence attending this week’s production is not just an
evenings entertainment, it is helping to secure the future of our region’s
cultural heritage.
So what of
the show? Regular readers will be already aware that we are fans of West Side Story. The show moves Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet to the new world. It
is 1950s New York and two rival gangs are trying to establish their dominance
in their neighbourhood. Add in the racial tensions that one gang, the Sharks,
is made up of Puerto Rican immigrants whilst the other, the Jets, is made up of
established white American lads. Naturally problems occur when former gang
member Tony (David Nagaj) falls in love with Maria (Skye Costelloe), sister of
the sharks leader Bernardo (Daniel Johnson). This doesn’t stop the leader of the
Jets, Riff (David Parker) from setting up a fight with Bernardo’s gang. The
gang leaders then meet at Doc’s place and arrange the terms of the battle.
This
production is large scale. The huge ensemble fills the stage during some of the
dance sequences. The orchestra is so large that a number of rows of seating had
to be removed from the stalls. It has clearly been a massive undertaking to
pull it all together. Credit, therefore, goes to the creative team for pulling
it off. The direction and choreography from Bobby Trotter and Simon Pinkney has created a very
pleasant evening’s entertainment. The dancing was vibrant, bold and well timed.
Considering
this was opening night there were no obvious nerves or hitches. The cast
captivated the spirit of the show well and gave a passionate performance.
The five
principals came across as leaders of the pack which is important in order to
pull this show off. Also coming under the spotlight were great input from James
Reay as Chino, Ollie Cook as Action, Martin Collins as Doc and William Kerr as
Pepe. This is an ensemble piece and each of the 40+ on stage gave an
entertaining performance.
The
orchestra, under conductor Joe Diggle filled the theatre with sound just as it
was designed to. We had some great vocals during the show. In particular, Sky
Costelloe, as Maria, had a stunningly powerful yet haunting quality to her
voice. Her duets with both David Nagaj, such as Tonight, and with Lucy Sutton, who played Anita, on A Boy Like That was a delight to hear.
This show is full of great tunes including Maria, I Feel Pretty and of course America.
This
production ticked the boxes: great costumes, big numbers and dance moves from a
fabulous cast plus a strong story. West
Side Story is a great way to mark the 150th anniversary - here’s
to the next 150 years!
Review by Stephen Oliver
Tickets:
£16 full price, £14 concessions, £10 limited view.
Groups 10+ get 1 free
Tickets available now from: Eventim Tickets LINK
The Tyne Theatre & Opera House Box Office is open 10am-3:30pm Monday to
Friday and event days
Booking and Information Line: 0844 2491 000 (10am – 6pm Monday to
Friday)
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