West Side Story

It was a real pleasure to be in the audience on the opening night of Babirra’s production of West Side Story. From the first scene with the Jets negotiating their way around the set to the last intensely emotive scene the show was energetic and fast paced.

       

        

Director Paul Watson and his team have created a fresh look for this well-known show.      Watson should be commended on his concept for the show and the way it all works together. He makes great use of space and levels.

Musical Direction by Ben Hudson was of the very highest standard. Hudson has obviously worked hard with the cast to create the beautiful vocal renditions throughout the show. The Quintet is one of the highlights both vocally and visually. The 27 person orchestra sounded clean and precise. At no point did they overwhelm the cast, and given that the orchestra is located at the back of the stage this could have proved a problem.

Jeremy Bailey-Smith’s set design is evocative and beautiful. Consisting of several open framework flats which fly in to create the various scenes, 2 spiral staircases which are not only used to create levels but also are moved into creative configurations as set pieces in the drugstore and dress shop. Scene changes were smooth, set pieces and stairs moved choreographically by cast and seamless flying did not pull attention from the action on stage. These changes contributed to the slick overall look of the show.

Choreographers Leigh Barker and Ashley Tynan have rehearsed the cast well although there were some timing issues and a lack of extension at times. Pathways in and around the set worked, in the most part, very well. Their choreography pays homage to the original work of Jerome Robbins, one of America’s greatest classical choreographers and incidentally, the person who created ‘jazz ballet’ specifically for this show. Robbins made use of a number of moves and poses which are indelibly linked to West Side Story. Barker and Tynan have incorporated these moves while keeping the choreography new. It works very well. The dance highlight for me was the Jets rendition of “Cool”.

Lighting design by Jason Bovaird and Michael Brasser was of very high quality. It enhanced the set – creating various spaces for the action. There was no point in the show where the important action could not be seen.

Sound design by Greg Ginger was well balanced. Some late cues on bringing up mics meant barely audible dialogue but for the most part, this was well done.

The cast is mostly young and they all did a great job. Stand out performances for me were the leads: Georgia Wilkinson playing Maria. She has a beautiful, well-trained voice perfect for the role. Wilkinson looks just right in the part and her growth throughout the show – from naive new arrival to America when we first see her, to the intense, angry woman at the end – is a revelation. Daniel Mottau played Tony with just the right mix of passion and enthusiasm. Mottau sang “Maria” and “Tonight” with the clear notes and emotion these numbers demand.

While the great majority of the cast performed very well, two others stood out. Zuleika Khan played Anita with strong conviction and consistency. Greg Campbell portrays Big Deal and performs strongly throughout the show.

There were very few negatives in this show. The only points for me were that the lights from the orchestra were often very distracting – especially in dark scenes. The diction from some cast made it very difficult at times to follow the dialogue. There were a number of times lead performers upstaged themselves in both dialogue and vocals. It’s a pity because we, as audience, missed their facial expressions. Some costumes were incongruous to the rest of the show, either because they appeared to not have been made well or they were too out of time from the rest of the costumes. Skirts from the 1980s don’t belong with dresses from the 60s. The rumble appeared too staged and the stabbings occurred behind a wire flat so some of the action was lost.

This is by far, the best Babirra show I’ve seen. I highly recommend that you don’t miss it!

West Side Story is playing at the Whitehorse Centre in Nunawading until June 11^th.

Wayne has been involved in theatre for over 30 years. He has performed in many productions locally and overseas. He is a graduate of the Victorian College of Arts School of Dance and is trained in a range of dance styles. Wayne has directed, built and designed sets and choreographed a number of productions – most recently choreographing NOVA’s production of Chicago. He is currently Head of Performing Arts at Boronia Heights College.