Date: 11th August (Saturday), 3:30pm
Seats: Promming (Arena)
Performers: Mikaela Bennett (Maria), Ross Lekites (Tony), Eden Espinosa (Anita), Leo Roberts (Riff), Gina Marco Schiaretti (Bernardo), Jack North (Baby John), Michael Colbourne (Diesel), Fra Fee (A-Rab), Phil Barnett (Officer Krupke), Louise Alder (soprano - Somewhere), Shark Girls, Jet Boys, Students from ArtsEd and Mountview
Notes: This year we had less Proms on our list of concerts we wanted to go to, so this is our first one this year! Bernstein is one of the featured composers at the Proms this year and the first concert of this concert version of West Side Story.
West Side Story is a show which I was introduced to at about 15. I attended National Youth Camp in Canberra in 2005, and the symphony orchestra I got into performed the orchestral suite from the musical. Everyone given at the camp was given an option at the movie night early on - watch Psycho (which the chamber orchestra was playing the orchestral suite for) or West Side Story. Obviously I chose the better option! Since then I’ve seen it quite a few times and developed a great fondness for the music.
This version was a concert version, so it had no real staging and a stage only a few metres wide. They did a few things to place people in different parts of the stage (like Maria higher up for the parts when she was on a balcony, and arranging people on different parts of the stage for the Tonight medley) but there was no dancing, which I thought was a bit of a shame, but did encourage the music to be the main part of the concert rather than the action. The only time I felt this was a detriment was when the deaths occurred, as the rumble occurred entirely offstage and if you didn’t know the plot or have a program then you might not know who died. Also, although Tony’s death occurred on stage, there was no gunshot sound effect, so again, the plot could have been unclear if you weren’t familiar with it already.
Most of the leading roles were played by Americans for this production. The only leading parts which were played by Brits were Office Krupke (who didn’t actually sing) and Riff (Leo Roberts), who I quite enjoyed. He had a great baritone voice. Ross Lekites (Tony) is currently in the original company of the musical Frozen on Broadway, but I really enjoyed his turn as Tony. He brought great emotion to the role and seemed very sensitive. I was excited to see Eden Espinosa play Anita, as she was the only actress in this performance I was familiar with. She played Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway, in LA and in San Francisco. She had also been in Rent and In the Heights. I thought she was brilliant, intense but emotional. It’s a small but important role and I think she played it beautifully. Oddly, they cast an operatic soprano to sing the main part of ‘Somewhere’, Louise Alder. It was a bit odd, but actually worked better than I thought it would.
There was a bit of a kerfuffle about casting Maria. Originally, I was super excited to see Broadway actress Sierra Boggess (who I knew best for playing Ariel in The Little Mermaid on Broadway), but apparently there had been a backlash against her casting. Why? Because she is white. I know that Maria as a character is Puerto Rican, but I don’t mind if they cast differently. But apparently the backlash was so severe that Sierra actually pulled out of the performance. Instead they cast Mikaela Bennett, a recent Juilliard graduate. I really enjoyed her performance, her accent was accurate without being over the top, and vocally she was absolutely perfect. While I am disappointed to not see Sierra, Mikaela was a great actress and gave a fantastic performance.
Our first Prom for this year, and what a brilliant start! It seems the Proms musicals, for me, are a good chance to see classic musicals which they haven’t produced on the West End for years. I’m so glad to have had this opportunity.
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