Rebecca Moore gets into the swing of West Side Story

  • West Side Story
  • New Theatre, Oxford
  • Until Saturday
  • Box office: 0844 871 3020 atgtickets.com/oxford

Something’s coming, something good… and you should definitely go to The New Theatre Tonight, tonight to see it before it (probably) leaves for America.

Sorry to open with so many song lyrics, but the emotion of West Side Story directed by Joey McKneely has taken hold of me. You might imagine that there are only so many times a guy called Tony can croon MA-RI-AAA before it gets wearing, but I could have listened to Louis Maskell’s gleeful rendition of first love for his delicately played Maria (Katie Hall) over and over again. As with so much of this production, what could seem old and dusty is given vibrant and soulful life so that a whole new generation may enjoy the starcross’d lovers’ plight.

From the opening When You’re A Jet dance scene — as the rival gangs ‘Jets’ and ‘Sharks’ square up on the streets of New York — to the company rendition of Tonight before the interval, Act One zinged along with all the force of a New York espresso.

Heck, I wanted to live in AMERICA! as the forceful Anita (Djalenga Scott) chattered and high-kicked her way around the wonderfully gritty set.

When the musical first played in New York, stories of gang violence littered the newspaper stands. The show was a departure from glitzy, jolly musicals toward realism, a fact never far from its surface.

This could seem overtly educational, but its message that fear of unknown groups fuels ignorant hatred is just as relevant today as it was in its first run.

Act One is pacier than Act Two, but that’s because the story takes a dramatic twist into tragedy, as anyone with a knowledge of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (the story’s direct influence) will already know.

But what it lacks in pace the second act more than makes up for in feeling: I unabashedly cried throughout. The orchestra conducted by Ben van Tienen breathed energy and life into what could have been overplayed Leonard Bernstein songs which are sung so beautifully in parts that the auditorium seemed to hold its breath. Like nascent love, this production is only in town for a very short run.

I’d go see it… Tonight, tonight...