I have never rushed out a review so fast, but this is so time sensitive and so good that I had to get word out to my readers and my theatre community as soon as possible. I will cut to the chase and give my reasons after so you can buy tickets right away. The Washington National Opera, currently without a home, has gifted Baltimore with an unexpected treasure: the most perfect production of West Side Story I have ever seen. Going back to the basics of the original script, gorgeous voices, superb dancing, a sumptuous orchestra, and physical perfection. The bad news is it only plays through Sunday.
We all know the ongoing drama our worthless leader is wrecking on the region’s crown jewel of performing arts , the John F. Kennedy Center. Watching audiences and performers willing to work there dwindle in protest to his egotistical insanity, the esteemed Opera company have taken to the road, and this extravagant production opened last night at the underused Lyric Opera House in Baltimore. It will transfer in a slightly scaled-down production to Bethesda’s prestigious Music Center at Strathmore for four more performances next weekend.
Let’s start with what this winning production does right: in a word, everything. First and foremost, they have taken a classic, semi-classical American musical by Maestro Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by first-timer Stephen Sondheim, perhaps his best ever (I go back and forth between this and Gypsy). Layer it with an unheard of lush 52-piece orchestra under the masterful conduction of Baltimore legend Marin Alsop, cast a flawless selection of quality singers and strong dancers form the nation’s top regional ballet companies, and frame them with exquisite sets and costumes. But what sets this magnificent production apart form the rest is that, most importantly of all, they trust the source material.
The Washington National Opera wisely adheres to the original script, score, and intentions of the creators, thankfully down to preserving the legendary Jerome Robbins choreography that is the visual language of the show. There is a maddening trend in modern theatre where the powers-that-be harp about “honoring the original intentions” of authors then proceed to rewrite them, sometimes beyond recognition, to force modern objectives and sensitivities on to them, calling them “problematic” (a word I would love to erase form our collective vocabulary). Recent misguided revivals have written the Sharks’ dialogue in Spanish with no subtitles so as to remove the “racial bias” towards the American Jets (even the overall well-done but for all the wrong reasons Stephen Spielberg remake pandered to this. If there is a bias in the story, it is against the Jets, who one-up to perform the ultimate hate crime in the story. In the end, no one wins). They cut scenes and move songs. The most recent Broadway revival cut Robbins totally out of the picture, as well as the intermission and “I Feel Pretty”, and moved several scenes off stage on camera. The recent catastrophic 2020 revival misfire of West Side Story was the only musical not to return after covid. My words to these very vocal critics: stop assuming you’re smarter and more socially aware than the masters who created these iconic and legendary masterpieces. Most of them were decades ahead of you and your most superficial interpretations of their works.
What this breath of fresh air production shows is that this story is perfect as is. The cast under WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello’s watchful eye is fresh and embraces the magic of the piece. Starting with New York vets Shereen Pimentel (West Side Story, who was the only good thing to come from that dark 2020 revival) and former Disney Chanel kid turned Broadway leading man Ryan McCartan (Heathers, The Great Gatsby, Frozen) make a perfect leading couple. Pimentel was the best thing in the doomed Broadway revival, but she is exponentially even better here. Her voice soars and sings in an angelic combination that is true to operatic standards without sounding out of place with the rest of the company. I will daresay that this is the first production I’ve ever seen, in the strongest cast I’ve ever seen, that Maria is the standout character of the show. McCartan is in the finest voice of his career and he brings a strong leading man presence in both his tender love scenes with Maria and his volatile scenes with the gangs. And if it were possible, they are even twice as wonderful when they blend together on Bernstein’s soaring love duet “Tonight”. McCartan not only opts up for the (rarely) optional B flat in “Maria”, he sustains it almost endlessly then continues singing as if he’d done nothing at all impressive 16 counts ago. And the reverence they bring to “One Hand, One Heart” is a near religious experience. The National Opera couldn’t have cast a better leading couple. They are the heart of this labor of love.
And the supporting roles are filled with equally impressive triple threats. Amanda Castro as Anita is exactly what the role begs for. Filling the enormous LaDucas of predecessors screen legend Rita Moreno and stage icon Chita Rivera, Castro does them proud. Anita is the Awards bait role of the piece (even Arianna DeBose gained an Oscar nom in the recent movie). She gets the best songs, the slinkiest dance moves, the most elaborate costumes, the funniest lines. And Castro takes advantage of all that to turn in the showcase performance the role demands.
Yurel Escezarreta breaths additional life and intensity to the underwritten role of Bernardo, Maria’s brother, Anita’s boyfriend, and the leader of the immigrant Sharks gang. The only lead without a solo song, Escezarreta brings more than zest, machismo, and electricity to the role. In his limited vocals, it’s apparent he’s as accomplished a singer as he is a dancer. To say he is charismatic doesn’t do him justice. Escezarreta is magnetic, and that natural magnetism wafts not only over Anita and the Shark girls, but over the audience too. If only the stage musical featured the far superior coed version of showstopper “America” that Sondheim rewrote for the classic movie, to give the fiery Escezarreta the showcase he deserves.
As American gang leader Riff, Taylor Harley not only has the attitude, the stature, and the dance moves, he brings out a duality never seen before in Riff. As tough as he can be with the Jets, Bernardo, and the law, he also displays a softer, more playful side when with Tony, reverting to the gentler kids they were in a former time. Riff’s music is he least demanding of the show, but Harley gives it authenticity and executes it flawlessly, and to the extreme.
It would be remiss to not point out the rest of the band of Jets who have the most exhausting and precise choreography in the piece supply the bulk of the energy of the show. Even their beatnik heavy dialogue (as a former two-time Riff in my earlier days, there are entire scenes that on paper that read nothing but “Zip”, “Cool”, “Daddy-O”, “Zap”, “Pow”, and other nonsense words, and these guys do it with truth and vigor, They are all individually principal dancers in premier ballet companies across the US and it shows. The high kicks are head level, the leaps and jetes are yards off the ground, and the pirouettes are endless in length. More importantly they are all strong and athletic, uniform and precise as a unit, and that makes all the differences in Robbins’ exacting choreography. But that doesn’t mean the vocals suffer. As a matter of fact this company’s most memorable musical moment (they are an opera company after all) is with Bernstein’s masterful Quintet, a full company piece where every faction layers their hopes for the evening over the others. It’s vocally exhilarating enough to be the first act finale in most other shows. Only this piece dares to try to exceed that musical accomplishment. Thankfully the Jets get their individual moments to shine in Act 2’s comic relief set piece, “Dear Officer Krupke”, where they comment on and poke fun at the crappy hand life has dealt them with razor sharp choreography and comic timing, each playing one misguided cog after another in our defective juvenile protection system.
Having no idea what to expect from an opera company’s take on a musical theatre piece, the one thing I was confident would stand out were the sets and costumes. But Peter J. Davidson’s scenic designs exceeded my imagination. With a detailed three-story set that transforms from the back streets of the working class neighborhood with a functioning fire escape to the rooftops to the site of the rumble to the heavily decorated dance at the gum. It also features an impressive, surprise two-story fold-out to take us inside Maria’s window to her girly bedroom for several key scenes.
Also expecting elaborate costumes from an opera company, Jessica Jahn’s designs are less impressive, but way more than serviceable. Jahn was hampered by the decision to set the show in the present, although the current political climate almost demanded it. The biggest let down is that modern dress cuts just don’t have the flow and dance like the traditional mid-50s styles do. Anita’s showstopper “America” brings the house down in most productions, but the movement of the dresses is a significant part of that dance. However Jahn makes the best of what she has and brings some unique contemporary touches, like the Jet who wears a Patrick Ewing Knicks basketball jersey, or Baby John’s Mets jacket (although I’d always envisioned the blue-collar Jets would be more inclined to be Yankees fans, at least the 50’s generation). Her best touch is to give all her designs a language of signature color. The American Jets and their girls are all in muted shades of blue, denim, olive, and khaki. The Sharks are in more fiery shades of scarlet, crimson, orange, and gold. This works on two levels. It not only reflects the character of the two sets of polar opposite tribes, but it also subtly allows the audience to easily keep track visually of who is who in the many dance and rumble sequences.
To even try to describe the stunning sound of the Washington National Opera’s Orchestra under Alsop’s guidance could do it no justice. The sound is otherworldly, we’ve never heard the score with this much richness and depth. The standard stage orchestra (as the company’s General Director and CEO Timothy O’Leary instructed the audience in a 30 minute pre-show lesson on the history and musicality of the piece) is 20-something pieces. This performance up to tripled some of the tracks, giving us extra lush strings on the classical ballads and triple drum sections on the Mambo at the gym. You have never heard this score played and sung this well and may never again.
Joshua Bergasse’s loyal and inspired interpretation of Jerome Robbin’s iconic choreography is the highlight of the evening. Where he excels is not only executing the dance that is so ingrained in our consciousness that it is actually as much of the language of the piece as Sondheim’s brilliant lyrics that blend dialects and slang into clever rhymes and patterns and Arthur Laurent’s smart and intense book. There has always been a misunderstood critique of the show: “Dancing gang members?” Yes, these warring gangs dance, and their fights are choreographed with leaps and jetes and throws and lifts and it is the most masculine and athletic feet you can appreciate. These dancers are all athletes with athletic bodies on a world class level. And under Bergasse’s guardianship and preservation of Robbins’ artform it is nothing short of breathtaking. Bergasse is the understated star of the evening. Even the usually cumbersome “Somewhere Ballet” sequence was smoothly integrated and showcased his grasp on lyrical dance. My only wish for this production is that they could have acquired the rights to the far superior movie version of “America”. I actually can’t believe that 70 years later, it’s not simply been integrated into the show, or at least an option to purchase. Not only are the lyrics significantly better, it fleshes out the differences of the immigrant experience for the men, who are now second class citizens, and the women, who now have more rights and opportunities. And the combination dances give more color, flare, and style content that I would have liked to see Bergasse create. But let me state I am ecstatic with what we have here onstage.
I admit maybe part of the success of this production is that, with the current state of chaos this country is currently in, a story that reworks Romeo & Juliet into a tale about racial inequality and bigotry may just hit differently today, as raw as our spirits are. But give credit to WNO management O’Leary and Zambello for coming up with this timely idea, hiring the perfect creative staff, and overseeing this performance to make it the stage magic that it is today. This production only plays till Mother’s Day in Baltimore (but what a perfect way to spend the day with Mom), then moves to a slightly scaled-down next weekend at Strathmore. In a perfect world, it could and would move from there to a Broadway transfer, because this stunning recreation is the perfect revival of a classic piece of American Musical Theatre that this country–and Broadway, who is likewise suffering–needs right now. Do yourself a favor. Don’t miss it.
All photos courtesy of Elman Studio
the show has a running time of 2 ½ hours with one 15 minute intermission.
West Side Story runs till May 10, 2026 at the Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mt. Royal Ave, Baltimore, MD, 21201 and from May15-17 at the Musical Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD, 20852. Tickets for either can be purchased here.