West Side Story Ad-Lib Style!

What happens if you take Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, set it in 1950’s upper west side New York between a gang of native New Yorkers ‘The Jets’, and a gang of Puerto Rican Immigrants ‘The Sharks’, and then throw into the mix some of the most loved and toe-tapping songs in musical history?

Well, if you don’t already know ‘West Side Story’ is what happens.

This much loved musical with lyrics from Sondheim and music by Bernstein was recently given the treatment by Perth's Ad-Lib Theatre Arts Youth Musical Theatre Class.

Ad-Lib prides itself on its ‘arts for all’ ethos and offers classes for everyone, regardless of ability, starting from age 3. This ethos is in evidenced throughout the production and you can't help but get a littlel nervous wondering if that, combined with the large number of cast required for a musical like West Side Story, will cause problems.

However, the production team of Director Victoria Rice and Musical Director Ian Duguid pulled it out of the bag no problem and did an amazing job of instilling a professional discipline into this group of young people. Not one of them missed a beat throughout the excellent production. Both the challenging, vibrant choreography and musical numbers were delivered with no small measure of talent and enthusiasm.

The show opens with both the Jets and the Sharks on stage and from the first iconic finger click I was hooked. Next, we were introduced to both gangs and the simmering tension between their leaders Riff of the Jets and Bernardo of the Sharks in more detail. Can I just say as someone whose only plausible accent is my native Glaswegian the entire cast coped with their New Yorker and Puerto Rican accents superbly well, with Craig King’s New York accent as Riff being a particular stand-out.

We then move onto the dance at the gym where our two star crossed lovers Tony (Jets) and Maria (Sharks) meet for the first time. It's at the dance that Riff and Bernardo arrange a rumble between the two gangs that will change everyone’s lives forever.

After the dance we were treated to Tony’s rendition of ‘Maria’ before Maria and Tony recreate Rome and Juliet’s balcony scene declaring their love for each other. Meanwhile Greer Montgomery as Anita along with Leona Craig’s Rosalia lead the rest of the Shark Girls through a really impressive version of ‘America’ which has the entire audience head bobbing and toe tapping along.

Anita is my favourite character both in the stage play and the film version and this ‘Anita’ makes the most of a great role with a very strong stage presence handling the comedy, dancing and tradegy required brilliantly.

The show moved quickly and we were soon at the rumble. Tony has promised Maria he will prevent any fighting and true to his word he tries to convince her brother Bernardo not to fight. Bernardo is having none of it and tries to provoke Tony in every way possible. When Bernardo pushes Tony, Riff steps in to protect his friend and both Bernardo and Riff then draw their switch blades and in the ensuing ‘rumble’ Riff is fatally stabbed by Bernardo which leads to Tony stabbing and killing Bernardo in retaliation. At this point the sound of the approaching police sirens are heard and everyone scatters which takes us to the end of act one.

Act two begins with Maria and the Sharks girls blissfully unaware of the events of the rumble. She is daydreaming of meeting Tony by singing ‘I feel pretty’. The news of Bernardo’s murder by Tony is soon broken to Maria though and she flees to her bedroom where Tony finds her. Despite his fears Maria tells him she still loves him and they plan to run away together which takes us into a fantastic and touching performance of ‘Somewhere’ by Rosalia along with the rest of the cast.

It is at this point that The Jet Boys led by ‘A-Rab’ inject some comedy into proceedings with ‘Gee Officer Krupke’. Meanwhile Maria has sent Anita to pass a message onto Tony. However she is intercepted by the Jets and after getting a less than warm welcome passes on a false message that Chino, Maria’s intended husband has killed Maria in a fit of rage and jealousy.

There are great individual performances within this show but the main thing that comes across is the teamwork and camaraderie between the entire cast. From speaking to friends and family in the audience everyone involved put in a huge amount of rehearsal time and effort. This absolutely showed from the first to last note and no-one missed a step, beat or line.

This was my second Ad-Lib production and it certainly won’t be my last. At a time when we all sit at home watching ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ we could do a lot worse than getting out into our own community and discovering what was made clear to me on Thursday night that thanks to the work of Ad-Lib Theatre Arts Group ‘Perth Has Talent’.

Thanks to Kael MacMahon Photography for his fabulous photos.