I attend musical theatre regularly, in my hometown and Broadway, and I usually enjoy every show. Having seen productions of West Side Story before, I was unusually disappointed. The cast playing the Puerto Ricans, including the leads, were extremely hard to understand, so thick were their "accents". The actress who played Anita was born and raised in Puerto Rico. She has all the "punchlines" in the song "America", but no one could understand them. Too bad!
Another decision that was puzzling was that the actors would launch into Spanish in the middle of dialog or a song. Since I couldn't understand them much of the time, I initially thought, "wow, I REALLY can't understand this line"...I was right. While I understand that Spanish is now a common language in our country, and that West Side Story in its original form does not realistically portray the Latino character, I think it was wrong to mess with the beautiful and well-known score of Leonard Bernstein. People attend this show to hear the music as it was written.
The dancing (another reason people want to see this show) was good, and yet not as tight as I would have expected. Sets were more spartan, as was the blocking. The ending was a disappointment, with most of the remaining characters standing on stage, until Maria, kneeling by Tony's body, holds her hands up for her shawl (a strange gesture if you're kneeling next to your dead lover). Someone comes to her with the shawl, and places it on her head, I guess like a widow's veil. But the curtain goes down with a sobbing Maria grasping the actors forearms above her while he's holding the shawl on her head. A weird pose with which to end the show.
The orchestra played beautifully, but overall this show was not up to the standards of a national touring company, which is shocking considering all the wonderful talent in this world.
