A timeless, ‘perfect’ musical

One of Broadway’s most popular musicals, “West Side Story”, is set to stun Bangkok with an electrifying an all-American production featuring the original choreography by Jerome Robbins. 
Six performances will be staged from October 5 to 8 as part of Bangkok’s 19th International Festival of Dance & Music.
“West Side Story” has been called “the perfect musical”. Everything about the production checks the boxes – powerful story (by Arthur Laurents), phenomenal music (Leonard Bernstein), expressive lyrics (Stephen Sondheim) and unforgettable choreography (Robbins). 
 This Joey McKneely touring production is the only in the world featuring Robbins’ original choreography. The company is also performing in Auckland, The Hague, Dubai, Dublin, Istanbul, Paris, Prague, Vienna and Tokyo.

The classic Romeo and Juliet romance is set in the seething milieu of juvenile gangs in Manhattan, with the Puerto Rican and American teen gangs taking the place of Shakespeare’s Montagues and Capulets.
Juliet is the young Puerto Rican girl Maria and Tony is Romeo. Their love story is also the story of gang conflict and colliding ethnic sensitivities. 
The romance, instead of bringing peace, leads to conflict and a fight in which knives are drawn and both gang leaders die. 
The rivalry, the bitterness and a love that doesn’t conquer all keep the story moving at a fast pace. 
The powerful music and breathtaking choreography create an electrifying drama that builds to a crescendo. 
Bernstein’s famous score, featuring songs such as “Maria”, “Tonight”, “Somewhere”, “America” and “I Feel Pretty” underline why this musical has entranced millions across the world.
It also explains why the film version was a runaway success, winning critical acclaim and 10 Oscars, including for Best Picture.
Bernstein, one of the most celebrated conductors of the 20th century, who could compose in many different styles, took the theme of two lovers thwarted by circumstances and created a masterpiece that still resonates with audiences.

It all began in 1947 when Robbins approached Bernstein and Laurents about collaborating on a musical adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet”. 
Initially the plot was to have revolved around a conflict between the Irish Catholic community and Jews living on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The first draft by Laurents was in fact called “East Side Story”. 
Bernstein, however, was unimpressed. He would have preferred an operetta than a musical in any case. Differences between Laurents and Bernstein grew and the composer nearly withdrew, but he was persuaded to persevere. 
The involvement of Sondheim turned the story into one about rival Puerto Rican and Polish-Irish gangs. Eventually the work, though set in New York in the 1950s, transcended genres and wrote its own idiom. 
The musical opened on Broadway on August 19, 1957, and ran for 732 performances. It was turned into a film in 1961. 
The power of the music, with its classical, jazz and pop elements and Latin rhythms, fires the imagination even today. Sixty years on and it still resonates, even with young adults – teenage angst hasn’t changed in the decades since. 
Bernstein’s effective use of opera composition techniques underwrote the show’s success. The song “Tonight” is the best example of this technique. Different characters reflect on their hopes and expectations for the night to come. For each, Bernstein crafted music that mirrors those visions.
Robbins with his choreography changed the way dance was used to tell a story. He famously said, “Why can’t we dance about American subjects? Why can’t we talk about the way we dance today, and how we are?” 

In most musicals, dancing is entertainment to keep the story moving from one plot point to another, but in “West Side Story” the choreography is intrinsic and essential to the plot. The story does not move without the dancing – significant plot points, storytelling moments and characterisations are all set in the dance.
While Joey McKneely’s award-winning staging of “West Side Story” revives the original choreography, it has been re-envisioned for today’s audience, making concessions for the way theatre itself has changed. Says McKneely, “It’s rare that shows have dance as the signature … the emotional glue.” 
Robbins himself first introduced McKneely to “West Side Story” when he danced in Robbins’ show “Broadway”. He was chosen to direct and reproduce his choreography for “West Side Story” at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy – his directorial debut. 
Robbins even directed a European tour of the show on its 50th anniversary in 2007 and an English production in 2008. 
To keep it as true to the original as possible McKneely drew from his own experience dancing numbers like “Cool” and “Dance at the Gym”, and from the Jerome Robbins Trust and Foundation, which licences Robbins’ work. Yes, despite the adjustments for the times, the show is pure Robbins – intense, exhilarating, dramatic and emotional.
Playing Tony is Marc Koeck, who won acclaim in the role in productions mounted by the Asolo Repertory Theatre and Orlando Shakespeare Theatre. 
Jenna Burns reprises her role as Maria from the same Asolo Repertory production. 
The musical supervisor and principal conductor is Donald Chan, who has worked with Gene Kelly, Ethel Merman, Joel Grey, Sid Caesar and Martha Graham – as conductor, music director and composer. 
Chan has to his credit many influential works of the American Musical Theatre, including “Cabaret”, “Kiss of the Spider Woman”, “The Pirates of Penzance” and “Phantom of the Opera”. For 12 years he was music director for the historic St Louis Municipal Opera, the largest theatre in the United States.
With the San Jose Symphony, Chan was featured piano soloist for Leonard Bernstein’s “Symphony No 2: The Age of Anxiety”. He has also composed for a wide variety of ensembles and provided incidental music for the plays of Ibsen and Brecht. 
Of the more than the 100 musicals and operettas he has musically directed and conducted, “West Side Story” is the one he is most often called upon to direct, serving as musical director for more than 3,000 performances.
The show is supported by Crown Property Bureau, Bangkok Bank, Bangkok Dusit Medical Services, BMW Thailand, B Grimm Group, Dusit Thani Bangkok, Indorama Ventures, Ministry of Culture, Nation Group, PTT, Singha Corp, Thai Airways International, Thai Union Group, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand. 

HURRY FOR A GOOD SEAT

- Seats are available at www.ThaiTicketMajor.com and (02) 262 3191.
- Find out more at www.BangkokFestivals.com.