‘West Side Story’ at NMACC, Mumbai: The timeless appeal of love and war

Director Lonny Price's 'West Side Story' features 34 performers and 20 live musicians. The Broadway musical is on at NMACC, Mumbai, till August 27.

After 'Sound of Music' played to packed galleries at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) earlier this year, another Broadway production comes to the baroque and technically groundbreaking Grand Theatre. And it is very much the satisfying experience it promises to be.

Thirty-four performers and a live orchestra of 20 musicians electrify the songs immortalized by various adaptations of the 'West Side Story', the latest film adaptation being Steven Spielberg’s 2021 film. Originally conceived by Jerome Robbins in 1957 for Broadway, the touring production put together by BB Promotion in 2003 wowed theatre lovers across 100 cities. In 2022, an all-new international creative team assembled around the talented Lonny Price under the same banner to begin the musical’s new chapter. The music, with Broadways hits like "Maria", "Somewhere", "Tonight" and "I Feel Pretty" (Leonard Bernstein), and the writing (Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim) stay the same, but this production has one more of the classic talents on glorious display—it’s true to the original Broadway choreography by Julio Monge, whom Spielberg also consulted for his film.

For those not in the know: 'West Side Story' is set in the 1950s, in a crumbling blue-collar district of Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The action involves two rival teenage street gangs, the Jets (white, second-generation New Yorkers) and the Sharks (recently arrived Puerto Rican immigrants). It is a musical with the magic package: love, tragedy, extraordinary songs, and fierce dancing. The kind of biting social commentary the show has still resonates: Why do we hate so much? Are we doomed to lose our loved ones and community members to xenophobia? The ill-fated love story is as much about identity as about its flip side—the othering of those who we think don’t belong. The relevance of these themes can’t be overstated.

Price, who has directed musicals such as 'Sweeney Todd' with Emma Thompson and 'Sunset Boulevard' with Glenn Close, has said in recent interviews during the show’s tour of Europe last year, that 'West Side Story' had been on his musical theatre bucket list for years. His production has already received praise for being very close to the original. Alejo Vietti’s costumes are inspired by original designs from the 1950s, including petticoats and circle skirts – a sartorial time-travel in exuberant shades of pinks, yellows, blues and purples.

It’s a captivating production from the word go. The Jets and the Sharks roam their crummy urban cul-de-sacs, clicking their fingers, killing and stabbing in sweepy, gladiator-like choreography moves to wrest control from each other, until the tragic climax stuns everyone from both camps. The ethnic spite is palpably acidic. The performances, especially from Jadon Webster as Tony and Melanie Sierra as Maria are powerful although how Webster could be a street goon capable of thrusting and twisting a knife into a Shark’s chest is entirely unbelievable given the story’s take on difficult love as something pristine and haloed. My 12-year-old daughter who accompanied me for her first stage musical experience, sighed in boredom during the febrile romantic duets, throb with yearning.

'West Side Story' works because Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani works, although the climax in the Bollywood film had to be different. Despite ethnic and cultural differences, it is possible, or rather beneficial, to take the high road and soar to the human plane.

At the Grand Theatre, NMACC, Mumbai, until August 27. Tickets, starting at Rs1,400, are available at nmacc.com and bookmyshow.com.