Review: Newcastle Musical Theatre Company West Side Story

West Side Story

Newcastle Musical Theatre Company

Theatre Royal, Newcastle

30th July 2024

Newcastle Musical Theatre Company are back with their take on Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s much loved musical West Side Story which opened at Newcastle Theatre Royal this evening and runs until Saturday 3rd August. 

West Side Story is one of my favourite musicals and I was delighted to be invited along to take in Leonard Bernstein’s amazing score and Sondheim’s wonderfully clever lyrics. It is always amusing to listen to grown men singing lyrics that suggest swear words without being so coarse as to actually use them.

West Side Story takes William Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and transports it to the slums of New York where the families of the Montegues and Capulets are refashioned as gangs the sharks from Puerto Rico and their bitter rivals the Jets. Tony (Romeo) falls in love with Maria (Juliet) much to the disgruntlement of both factions. As they all point out to both sides – it’s probably not going to end happily. 

Tony (Kaie Bosworth)  is a founding member of the Jets and finds his loyalties tested as Riff (Matthew McGuire) cajoles him into being part of their pack in a show of strength against leader of the Sharks Bernardo (Zach Hardy.) On learning of this unholy union, Anita (Georgia Wilkins) has grave reservations and is not backward in showing her feelings to Maria (played tonight by Amy Reid.)

And so the tragic story is set up for the ensuing rumbles, fights, betrayal and, as predicted, no one comes out of it particularly well. 

At the opening we meet the Jets, led in Tony’s absence by Riff. McGuire commands the stage as much as he does his gang members in an energetic opening which introduces both gangs and their joint adversaries, police officers, Shrenk (Dan Greener) and Krupke (Jay Latimer) who do little to calm the tensions between the gangs and could well be accused of inflaming the hatred amongst the gang members. 

Then we are introduced to an idealistic and reformed Tony who is convinced that something better is coming for him and hopefully the rest of them. Bosworth as Tony is very easy on the eyes and ears as his lovestruck character is torn between his new love and old rivalries. 

Reid is equally attractive as sweet and naive Maria and the two of them together work very well as a couple. Maria’s relationship with Anita, her brother’s lover, is a complicated one and in the first half Wilkins enjoys exploring her saucier and playful side before events turn the relationship much darker in the second half. 

I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to several of the cast before watching this production and Jojo Hatfield (Teresita) told me that she had had such fun and high jinks during the rehearsals despite the somewhat sombre source material. When you see the scenes in which the  Puerto Rico girls are together and the camaraderie you really understand what Ms Hatfield was talking about. It is particularly evident in a wonderfully choreographed ‘America’ and opening the second half with ‘I Feel Pretty.’

Speaking of the choreography, Sandra Laidler, has drawn on all her experience to bring out the set piece and show stopping numbers to great effect. I particularly enjoyed the Dance at the Gym and many people’s favourite Gee, Officer Krupke. 

The sound (Jonathan and Amy Mellor of Tyne Audio) was crisp throughout and there were some amazing vocals from the whole cast reverberating around the delighted audience at the Theatre Royal this evening. 

Malcolm Moffat as Musical Director has done an amazing job with the entire cast for this production and controlled his 19-strong orchestra very well this evening performing what is a highly demanding score. 

Cindy Redhead deserves a mention for the costumes which were all perfect and a great deal of thought has obviously gone into them. 

Being opening night, there were a few bumps and boo boos peppered across the performance but I am sure they will be ironed out as the run continues and everyone will enjoy Bernstein and Sondheim’s take on Romeo and Juliet watching Newcastle Musical Theatre Company’s ‘West Side Story.’

Review by Stephen Stokoe

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