West Side Story, arriving at Dubai Opera on Valentine’s Day and running until February 18, is turning 60 this year. It’s celebrating with a facelift.
The Romeo and Juliet-inspired musical, introduced to Broadway in 1957, has always questioned whether love can survive a deadly teenage rivalry between a white American gang, The Jets, and their Puerto Rico rivals, The Sharks, in New York’s Upper West Side. But choreographer and director Joey McKneely ditched era-specific sets and went for a more contemporary, bare-bones approach on his new production.
“If anyone’s ever seen the original production and the movie for that matter, there’s this stereotypical look to the 1950s, you know? It looks slightly cartoonish, the slicked hair, the rolled up jeans, the poodle skirts,” said McKneely.
He stripped away visuals that didn’t seem real to him and honed in on simple things, like fire escapes and the imposing steel structure that is New York City. He wanted to get down to the core essence of each character’s emotional state.
“If we play [with] that and we don’t put anything in its way, like cardboard sets or poodle skirts or big bouffant hair, or whatever, then you’re really looking at teenagers as they should be portrayed,” he said.
“Human behaviour has not changed since 1957. We still fall in love, we still have fear, we still have anger. Teenagers still have this crazy energy that they can’t control,” he added.
Before the conception of West Side Story, it was East Side Story. The conflict was between an Irish Catholic family and a Jewish family, focusing on themes of anti-Semitism. Due to its similarity to other productions at the time, the project was halted. Arthur Laurents eventually wrote the reimagined and retitled book; the production’s music came courtesy of Leonard Bernstein, its lyrics courtesy of Stephen Sondheim, and its choreography courtesy of Jerome Robbins. (McKneely learned the original choreography from Jerome Robbins himself, and will bring it to Dubai.)
PLAYING WITH FIRE
McKneely’s principal actors, Jenna Burns as Maria and Kevin Hack as Tony, possess a fiery onstage chemistry that has been a hit with reviewers.
“I don’t think you’ve ever seen [Jenna] before, but she’s incredibly gorgeous, and it’s impossible not to fall in love with her every night on stage,” said Hack. At 14, he was on his way to becoming a professional ice hockey player, and at 18, he discovered he could sing. Hack now considers himself a huge advocate of love and the powers behind it. He places his optimism into his performance of Tony, which he played across from three other Marias before Burns.
“In my personal life, [I] don’t get to experience love on a day-to-day basis, a relationship kind of love. The fact that I get to do it in the show… I get to really, really pour what I feel a relationship should be into the character, which is really nice,” he said.
Burns credited her and Hack’s friendship and trust offstage for their professional chemistry.
“You’re just with each other all the time — you’re eating, living, breathing, sleeping the show,” she said.
PRESENT-DAY AMERICA
The musical’s exploration of racism, cultural discord and a fear of what’s different is still painfully pertinent today, particularly during a month when the US has witnessed a travel ban on refugees from seven Muslim-majority nations, immigration raids that impacted hundreds of individuals, and conversations about building a wall between the States and Mexico.
“I think what’s amazing about West Side Story is that it’s based on Romeo and Juliet, but once you transcend that into racism, it becomes a modern story. It becomes very poignant and the layers become deeper and the motivation for these characters become deeper,” said McKneely.
A lack of understanding and compassion between opposing forces leads to violence — one that can do irreparable harm to people who are not caught up in it.
“It destroys love, unfortunately,” he said.
Hack worried that this permeating darkness overshadowed the good.
“Everyone’s always looking at the hate aspect, but we need to look at the love between the two leads, between Tony and Maria, because it’s unreal. Those cultures and those backgrounds are so different,” he said.
MARIA, MARIA
Maria, who has just recently moved to America, is a sheltered character, partially because her brother, Bernardo, is so protective of her. But she’s eager to experience whatever life has to offer, naive as she is to the consequences.
Burns, stepping into Maria’s shoes, comes from Kansas City. It seems like an odd choice for a character whose core identity includes being Puerto Rican. (Natalie Wood, an American of Russian descent, played Maria in the 1961 film.)
McKneely’s casting choices were restricted by qualities such as operatic training and age range, he said.
“It’s very difficult to find race-specific actors to play these roles of Tony, Maria and Anita, because the requirements of the roles, vocally, and also dance-wise for Anita, are so high,” he explained. When Jenna walked into the room, she had all the qualities of Maria, chiefly her freshness.
“She’d just graduated out of college. She didn’t have show business around her. She was just this innocent girl from the middle of the mid-west. But onstage, any actor can portray a character if they’re very good — they can transcend race with that,” said McKneely.
Burns turned to research — and the experiences of her Puerto Rican co-stars — in order to better understand the role.
“That’s one of the things that makes acting what it is, is that I get to step into someone else’s shoes with experiences that I have not personally experienced and get to tell their story. There’s definitely a lot of research and prep that goes into that,” she said.
WHERE ART THOU
Ask either Burns or Hack which scene is the most impactful, the most resonant, and they’ll both have the same response: the balcony scene.
“After Tony and Maria meet for the first time, they have that entire scene where they can completely be immersed in each other without having to worry about anyone else around,” said Hack.
“Every aspect of it — between the orchestra playing behind us, the lyrics, the words, how everything moves together, it’s just such a beautiful scene.”
Don’t miss it!
Tickets to West Side Story, starting from Dh250, are available from dubaiopera.com.
