To say that West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's 1957 musical updating of Romeo and Juliet, presents production challenges is an understatement.
Demanding dance numbers abound. The orchestration is subtle and shifting, vocals notoriously difficult to nail. Scene changes, 17 in all, are exceeded only by cast size: 34.
Orpheus' production at Centrepointe Theatre gets most of it exactly right.
Set on the mean streets of New York City, the story opens with rival gangs the Jets and the Sharks tangling in a stylized tussle. A couple of cops, the nasty Lieut. Schrank (Al Baldwin) and the thickheaded Sgt. Krupke (Tim Hillock) intervene, but this inner-city war is well entrenched, as the actors' engergetic, purposeful movement here and throughout Orpheus' production makes clear.
Into this battleground step Tony (Ben Nowell), who is trying to extricate himself from the Jets, and Maria (Shawna Morgan), sister to the Sharks' leader, Bernardo (Ed Librada).
The two, hungering for something better than gang life, fall in love. But like Shakespeare's young lovers, Tony and Maria's links with warring factions doom them to tragedy.
The plot comes to its inevitable deadly climax when the Jets' leader, Riff (Jordan Hancey), and Bernardo finally rumble. Tony, trying to stop the conflict, winds up paying a terrible price.
As Tony and Maria, Nowell and especially Morgan, shine.
Singly or in duet, their voices are clear, strong and expressive, with Morgan's cheeky and charming I Feel Pretty a showstopper. Unfortunately, all the vocalists have to contend with an overly loud and not entirely well-rehearsed orchestra under conductor Brian Boggs.
Noteworthy as well is Bernardo's feisty girl Anita, deliciously played, although sometimes with shaky singing, by Roxane Delisle.
And way down the gangland pecking order are people like Jets member Action, a short-fused firecracker edgily acted by Andrew Wiseman, and Anybody's, a gang wannabe portrayed by Canterbury drama student Alessia Lupiano, who turns in an achingly poignant rendition of Somewhere.
Memorable too are the dance numbers by choreographer Linda Fournier. Alternately menacing (the Jets and Sharks) and joyous (the gang's girlfriends), the dances echo the story line's teeter-totter of dark and light.
The two-day passage of time and the spirit of the 1950's are well captured in Rob Puchyr's lighting and Guylaine Roy's costumes.
Artistic director Laura Duncan optimizes the spare streetscape by set designer Tricia Baldwin, although the recurring between-scene blackouts hobble the show's momentum. Also unfortunate is the abrupt conclusion that left Friday's audience uncertain whether the show, which clicks along especially well in Act II, was even over.
West Side Story continues at Centrepointe Theatre until March 11. For tickets and times, call 580-2700 or go to www.centrepointetheatre.com .