The Long Island Advance
Something’s coming, it’s here, and it’s thrilling
When composer Leonard Bernstein was contemplating ideas for the “West Side Story” score, he recalled driving on the Henry Hudson Parkway, missing an exit, and winding up under a huge causeway by the river near 125th Street. The location and the cacophonous sounds of Puerto Rican kids playing with their raucous shouts nailed the theme for him. His lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, was just starting out.
That causeway scene is in Gateway’s new production of “West Side Story,” thanks to the convincing Upper Manhattan sets from the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. And so is the young cast’s stunningly believable brashness and bravado. The show’s talented performers grab you from the get-go, with simmering mayhem in song and attitude, amazing balletic leaps and in-your-face movement. The Jets, white guys, led by Riff, and the Sharks, Puerto Ricans, headed by Bernardo, mesmerized the opening-night audience, a full house, right from the beginning.
The gangs’ gearing up for turf dominance while a member from each side is drawn to each other in a modern-day “Romeo and Juliet” romance, is rendered true, beautiful and violently from this wonderful cast. The Gateway has given us a gorgeously authentic production.
We’re introduced to the gangs with that famous lingering bluesy note and impatient snapping rhythm, as these tough boys express themselves with convincing force and menace in body stances and leaping moves. Wow!
Director/choreographer Vince Ortega, whose magic touches gifted past Gateway productions including “In the Heights,” stayed true to Jerome Robbins’s original direction and dance vision. Ortega is aided by associate director/choreographer Ashley Klinger, a Jerome Robbins devotee and fourth-generation ballet dancer. She is also the musical’s intimacy director.
Robbins was the show’s idea man and the results of Ortega’s intention, to be faithful to his work, are thrilling and explosive, as the dancing included several styles, among them athleticism and jazz. So, a big thanks to Ortega and Klinger as well as associate choreographer Bryan Ernesto Menjivar, who also plays Shark Juanito in the cast, for honoring that.
Jackson Hurt as the handsome Tony has the earnest, kind yearning of a young man trying to step away from the Jets, and his song, “Something’s Coming,” is a soaring, hopeful anthem with an intangible knowing that a good force is trying to break through.
After meeting Maria (Sabina Collazo) at the dance that night, both are drawn together by an invisible force.
Collazo, who has played Maria in past productions, is luminous as Maria, the innocent Shark family member, whose brother is Bernardo, the leader. Collazo’s lovely vulnerability and soprano voice, on the eager threshold of womanhood and finding love, is endearing.
You cheer for this couple.
The dance competition in the gym that night has both gangs dancing with partners, whirling freestyle, joyfully exuberant wearing colorful shirts, pants, skirts, dresses. Bernardo and Anita, Riff and Velma square off in an electrifying “Mambo.” This is the backdrop with Tony and Maria meeting for the first time.
After they kiss, Bernardo breaks them up and Tony searches for Maria past a jumble of buildings, calls out to her and climbs up her fire escape, emulating the balcony scene in Shakespeare’s story. Tony’s anthem, “Maria,” is a moving prayer of devotion, and “Tonight,” the duet between the couple, is incandescent. Both songs have gorgeous operatic qualities. Bernstein wanted to display their love as pure, spiritual emotions.
Carlos Jimenez plays Bernardo, a proud Puerto Rican and Anita’s boyfriend, who you can negotiate with to a point. And he’s tired of targeted names like the derogatory “spic,” old hatreds, and the nasty racism displayed by Lt. Schrank (Jesse Swimm). Bernardo doesn’t want to rumble in the gym, leaving the girls in his group to walk home alone. Ashton Lambert as Riff won’t back down, insistent to hold onto his territory. (Lambert is effectively tense and scary.) They agree to fight elsewhere.
Like life, there’s humor interspersed, as in the “America” dance scene with the Shark girls, Anita (Megan Elyse Fulmer), Rosalia (Samara DeCastro), Francisca (Alexis Papaleo), Estrella (Lily Mendoza), Consuela (Manuela “Mango” Agudelo), Margarita (Angelina Didea), vamping, posing, pirouetting, flashing colorful crinolines for emphasis, giving the song their all, comparing life in Puerto Rico with the advantages of living in… America.
Later on, Fulmer, as the passionately amazing spitfire Anita, broken after being accosted by the Jets, is riveting.
The “Gee Officer Krupke” scene, with the Jets addressing the local policeman with feigned respect and hijinks, is hilarious. The Jets mix it up in humor, diss each other, sing sometimes in falsetto, of the sordid societal backgrounds influencing their lives to the local beat cop (Manny Erias) while proclaiming their innocence after the terrible rumble they just took part in.
Bill Carmichael plays Doc, the benevolent soda shop owner who tries to steer both gangs to saner ways.
This entire cast is seamless in their portrayals. (They must have rehearsed in their sleep.)
Cheers for the orchestra, led by Andrew Hail Austin (keys 1) with associate music director Jake Turski (keys 2) with musicians on trumpet, trombone, two reeds, bass and drums. They tackle Bernstein’s symphonically discordant and stunningly beautiful score with complex rhythms, leading up to impending savagery, tenderness and poignancy brilliantly.
Arthur Laurents wrote the show’s original story and it is a profound one. There are lessons to be learned, along with the beautiful music and acting.
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Treat Yourself to The Gateway’s Riveting Revival of ‘West Side Story’
The houselights dim. A solitary streetlamp illuminates the set. Two rival teenage gangs battling for control of Manhattan’s Upper West Side storm the stage, snapping their fingers and swaggering. A simmering “Sneaker Ballet” unfolds. Guttural sounds and a few choice words fill the air. This well-calculated call to arms makes it clear that the percolating tension between the Jets and the Sharks is about to go nuclear. From this ominous opening to the heartrending finale, The Gateway’s spectacular “West Side Story” held Saturday’s opening night audience spellbound.
Conceived, directed, and choreographed by the visionary Jerome Robbins, this 1957 Broadway musical, a reimagining of Shakespeare’s tragic love story, “Romeo and Juliet,” features music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim (in his Broadway debut), and a book by Arthur Laurents. A cultural phenomenon, “West Side Story” has seen five Broadway revivals and is frequently staged in regional, community, high school, and university theaters around the globe. This artistically innovative musical also spawned two highly successful films, the iconic 1961 version directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, which won 10 Academy Awards, and a 2021 version directed by the legendary Steven Spielberg.
Thanks to The Gateway’s talented Director and Choreographer, Vincent Ortega, and Associate Director and Choreographer, Ashley Klinger, this unforgettable production brings Robbins’ Tony Award-winning Broadway choreography to Long Island. Watching this energetic, eclectic blend of rigorous athletic jumps, jazz, ballet, and Latin-inspired movement (including salsa, mambo, cha-cha, and Afro-Cuban) was worth the price of admission.
Jackson Hurt and Sabina Collazo were ideally cast as the star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria. Tony is an ambitious former leader of the Jets from a white, working-class background, and Maria is a recent Puerto Rican immigrant eager to start anew in America. In their balcony duet, “Tonight,” Collazo’s soaring soprano filled the theater. Their palatable onstage chemistry made “One Hand, One Heart” a captivating duet. Hurt showcased a commanding tenor in “Something’s Coming” and delivered a stirring rendition of the operatic “Maria.”
Carlos Jimenez gave a memorable performance as Bernardo, a proud Puerto Rican immigrant, impassioned leader of the Sharks, and Maria’s overprotective brother. Franco Bianchi was believable as Chino, Bernardo’s friend and Maria’s intended suitor, whose jealous rage led to tragic consequences. Megan Elyse Fulmer delivered a standout performance as Anita, Bernardo’s spirited girlfriend and Maria’s confidante. Fulmer’s precise choreography and stellar vocals made the satirical, Latin-infused dance song “America” a real showstopper! One of the most poignant scenes in the show occurred during the emotionally charged duet “A Boy Like That/I Have a Love,” where Anita and Maria reach a deep understanding that, in matters of the heart, there is no right or wrong.
Ashton Lambert commanded the stage as Riff, Tony’s best friend and the die-hard leader of the Jets, hellbent on defeating the Sharks. Jimenez and Lambert are two powerhouse performers, and their showstopping dance moves and combat skills mesmerized the audience in the violently tragic “Rumble” scene that closed Act I with a bang.
“Dance at the Gym,” a big production number with frenetic, breathtaking choreography blending mambo, jazz, ballet, high jumps, and powerful kicks, featured the full company. To be cast as a gang member of the Jets or Sharks, or one of their Girls, a performer must be a triple threat, able to act, dance, and sing. This production features a cast that mastered that Herculean task! The Jets include PJ Palmer (Action), Jack Mintz (A-Rab), Keaton Bartz (Baby John), Jack David Mullen (Big Deal), and Gabriel Hobbs (Diesel). The Jets Girls include Olivia Schuh (Velma), Angelina Didea (Minnie and Margarita), Abigail Graham (Anybodys), Alysia Vastardis (Graziella), and Keegan Lavery (Pauline). The Sharks include Curtis J. Faulkner (Pepe), Rodolfo Santamarina (Indio), Bryan Ernesto Menjivar (Juanito), and Brandon Moreno (Toro). The Shark Girls include Samara DeCastro (Rosalia), Lily Mendoza (Estrella), Alexis Papaleo (Francisca), and Manuela “Mango” Agudelo (Consuelo). Amid the chaos and collision-course choreography, Tony and Maria find each other, and the scene takes on a dreamlike, slow-motion atmosphere as fate strikes and love takes flight.
A big round of applause goes to DeCastro for her moving performance of the hauntingly beautiful ballad “Somewhere.” Another standout number, “Gee, Officer Krupke,” provided much-needed comic relief. Action and The Jets demonstrated their strong physical-comedy skills throughout that hilarious scene, which was made even funnier by a set featuring a broken-down wooden fence defaced with graffiti and a colorful array of laundry hanging on a clothesline.
Bill Carmichael as Doc, Jesse Swimm as Lieutenant Schrank, Manny Erias as Officer Krupke, and Dustin Lawson as Glad Hand all gave outstanding performances. Lawson also worked a bit of magic backstage with his 1950s-style wigs, hair, and makeup designs.
The Gateway’s raw, kinetic, musically intoxicating production of “West Side Story” left me breathless and begging for more!
