Meal.
Still gripping: The “West Side Story” is a guest in Essen. The first-class ensemble makes the new production an experience.
Once upon a time in America – the dream of a love without borders and prejudices. When the musical material, choreographed by Jerome Robbins and set to legendary music by Leonard Bernstein, came to Broadway in 1957, this “West Side Story” was a revolution in the history of musical theater. When ever was the melee of great feelings packed into such a gripping mixture of classical opera, jazz and Latin American rhythms. The complex sound cosmos bewitches to this day.
This timeless Romeo and Juliet variant from the urban canyons of New York has seen many a remake since then. But anyone who has experienced the lavish new production of the musical classic in Essen’s Grugahalle should no longer have any doubts that the original still has its strongest effect.
Why should one charge the bloody clinch of hostile immigrant groups with tried references to the present when a snap of the fingers still creates the greatest tension. The warring street gangs approach each other in Anna Louizos’ highly mobile stage design, almost predatory and lurking. The local Jets and Puerto Rican Sharks still look like they just stepped out of a James Dean movie scene in their jeans and tight shirts. Vitality and virility penetrate from every pore. Only Jadon Webster’s Tony is softer. Big voice, big heart and only eyes for – Maria. His yearning languor on the fire escape remains one of the most beautiful declarations of love in musical history.
Melanie Sierra is not just a perfect cast as Maria. Radiant and confident in the highs, she also manages the change between high-spirited lightness and deep tragedy in a highly supple manner.
The class of the new production staged by Broadway director and actor Lonny Price underscores how seemingly effortlessly not only the two main actors manage the demanding task triad of singing, dancing and acting – and the quality of the casting. From over 1,200 applicants, organizer BB Promotion has filtered the cast for a tour piece that will eventually cause rapture and a few tears here and there for several years.
Songs like “Maria”, “Somewhere” or “Tonight” have become world hits
The fact that this love story has a dramatic end without icing on the cake is part of the success story, just like the rousing dance scenes that choreographer Julio Monge and the athletic and expressive ensemble pumped up with new energy.
Under the direction of Grant Sturiale, the world hits from “Tonight” to “Somewhere” are so polished, brilliant and thrilling that the English-language touring production (without German surtitles) picks up the pace immediately between the longer text passages, right up to the tragic finale. Because even the artistic revolutionaries of that time probably had their doubts about the dream of a world in which origin and skin color no longer played a role.
Until January 14, Grugahalle Essen, Messeplatz 2, tickets from 40 euros at Tel. 01806-101011 or www.tickets-direkt.de
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