West Side Story (Chicago) Tickets

The entire production was wonderful! The cast is outstanding--Bravo!

I purchased tickets for this show for my parents as a gift - They were very happy with the performances, with a special call out for "Maria's" voice!

I had the great pleasure of being in the front row for Tuesday night’s Chicago opening, and it was even more awesome than when I saw this show in Boston. Or maybe the difference was that I was sitting with a sophisticated theatre-going audience from the Second City, rather than the reserved audiences in Boston. Either way, it was my second time seeing the show and I loved it even more the second time around. The voices are beautiful and the dancing is phenomenal. Thunderous applause and standing ovation at the end. My favorite players are Ali who plays Maria, Kyle who plays Diesel, and Steve who plays Glad Hand.

Both leads took a little time to find their voices, but they were wonderful, and along with the dancing, it was an extremely enjoyable show!

The Jets characters were much more interesting than the movie version. The Latin women characters were also very good and had beautiful voices.

This is a tremendous national Touring Company version of a timeless clasic. The music (singing and orchestration) is wonderful. The dance is electrifying. The inclusion of some Spanish language dialouge adds to the experience. Major roles are very well cast. "Maria" (Ali Ewoldt) is exceptional. Stage and lighting is wonderful also. Standing ovation at opening night performance. If you have any interest in West Side Story do not miss this opportunity.

What dancing!! What a story!!! A beautiful production. I think the sound system needs adjustment as the voices sounded tinny, especially at high volumes.

We were seated in the balcony and it was very difficult to understand the words to the songs. We fully understand that the tone was supposed to be rushed and "rumbled" but it was more like just mumbled. Comparing this to the movie version might not be fair but my friend and I (and others we talked to) didn't feel any real emotion from the performance. The dancing was too soft, more like ballet when it should have been more like jazz . Having experienced this era personally and coming from a white vs Puero Rican neighborhood, there was no fluffy ballet in our neighborhood. The performance was more like watching our kids in a high school performance - and not the High School Musical verson. Glad we purchased the 1/2 price tickets.

Went opening night. Dances were great but "updates" in original play were not helpful and distracting. Very disappointed and would not recommend. The movie was MUCH better.

West Side Story is one of my favorite musicals, so I am forgiving of some less successful elements of this show. Overall, I enjoyed it, was moved, left the theater happy. However, there are two major letdowns that stayed with me. The actor playing Tony was pleasant enough, but his vocal performance left a lot to be desired. He seemed to sing through the nose, and when performing duets with Maria, was unable to match her vocal strength. At times his voice sounded pleasant, but most of the time I was distracted by the nasal tones and lack of depth. I thought it was very appropriate to incorporate Spanish dialogue into the show for the actors playing the Sharks and their group. However, I found it distracting and disappointing that their songs were often translated into Spanish as well. Sondheim's lyrics are iconic and so familiar, so when the actors sang in Spanish, I felt it took away from my enjoyment of the show. Overall, I'm very happy I saw the show: the dancing was amazing and beautiful, the music is as memorable and lyrical as ever, and the cast is talented and capable. The problems I had with the performance (Tony's unappealing vocal performance and the translation of songs into Spanish) may not be a factor for other viewers at all.

Fantastically choreographed, but the diction was a little lacking in the balcony (you could scarcely make out what the women were saying during "America"). Also, a good chunk of the dialogue and lyrics in this play is in Spanish, which I'm sure was an attempt by the producers to add their creative twist to the Puerto Rican side of the story....but it destroys the flow of the songs. Every time they switched from English to Spanish, I lost my immersion in the song and found myself tapping my foot for the English return. One of my favorite plays, one of my least favorite adaptions.

The lead voices were very good. Lots of energy and quality dancing. However, at least 25% of the words were done in Spanish. Sometimes they were critical lines in order to understand the story. The show should be advertised as bilingual. I doubt the majority of the audience was bilingual. The song "I feel pretty" was delived in a very poor form. it was much less than the original production. Also the song "There's a place for us" was not sung by the leads which took away the romance of the song. At the end, the emotional moment of Tony's body being carried away by both gangs was deleted. That was just wrong. If you have never seen the original West Side Story, you will no doubt enjoy the part you understand, but this version is far less than the original production.