SHOW INFORMATION: Through August 24. Performance schedule varies. At Toby's Baltimore location at the Best Western Hotel and Conference Center. Ticket price includes all you can eat buffet dinner, salad bar, dessert and make-your-own-sundae bar, plus free, secure parking. For information and reservations go to www.tobysdinnertheatre.com or call 1-866-99TOBYS.
◊◊◊◊ out of five. 2 hours, 20 minutes, including intermission. Stylized violence, fire arm use, strobe and fog effects, racial themes and implied sexuality.
West Side Story, which opened last weekend at Toby's Dinner Theatre of Baltimore, is one of those musicals, I think, that has such a mythology and beloved memories surrounding it, that the public goes in with certain expectations. Bolstered by an even more successful film adaptation that even its creators admitted was better than their original stage production, the public has come to expect Jerome Robbins' dynamic choreography and an almost epic feel to what is really a small show at its heart. Not unlike the similarly appointed Grease, producing West Side Story, even 47 years after the film won every major award there is (not to mention 50+ years after its Broadway debut), remains a dicey undertaking. These days, if you are doing Grease, you are doing the stage version with the movie songs; but these days, if you are doing West Side Story, you are adhering strictly to the mandates of its creative team – no "America" for all the Sharks to sing and dance, no changing the order of "Cool" and "Gee, Officer Krupke" to balance the acts and match the film. Add to all of that the inherent challenge of Leonard Bernstein's masterpiece score and almost non-stop ballet/jazz/Broadway dancing, and it is a wonder the show gets produced at all any more. (How next season's "all new vision" of the show effects future productions we'll have to wait and see.) But produce it Toby's did, and director/choreographer Mark Minnick manages, mostly successfully, to give everyone what they want from the show.
Bucking long-standing Toby's tradition, West Side Story is being done with a pre-recorded orchestral score. I suppose this is a catch-22 for Toby and company, because a live orchestra is one of the things that sets her shows apart from similar venues. But here, I think the show benefits from the recording. First, there is no way a 7 or 8 piece band could do justice to the music, solved here by a fully appointed orchestra. Second, considering the sheer volume and complexity of the choreography, it probably saved the company weeks of rehearsal time having the real thing every time. Of course, there are potential pitfalls to pre-recorded music. It never adjusts to the performance, allowing no room for error, extra dramatic, in-the-moment feeling or any unforeseen mishap with scenery or costume changes. (There was no such moment opening night.) Then again, the possibility of an actress being so into a scene that she needs a moment to gather herself, or an extra long passionate kiss, is gone – that extra level of spontaneity no longer possible. Still, I'd rather that than a thin sound from the pit, or more likely a squeaky violin or two.
Perhaps the biggest drawback to this particular recording is the breakneck speed of the score, the effect of which is also good and bad. Knowing they have mere seconds between song cues, the actors are delivering their lines with an unusual (and welcome in this case) amount of intensity. Everything is at a fever pitch, much like the lives of the unfortunate youths at the center of the story. They frequently talk over each other, and the rapid fire delivery of such gems as "Pow! Pow! Crack-jacko! Down goes another teenage hoodlum!" gets lost, not in the now quaintness of the line, but in the fury of pent up frustration. Other lines, "I and Velma ain't dumb!" for example, lose some of their ironic bite. Still, we could all do with a little less irony in exchange for some pulse-racing intensity in a story we all know. In the balance, it is a good trade off dramatically. Musically, that breakneck speed is somewhat less ideal. While it works for the empowering "Jet Song" – though I am amazed Riff didn't pass out from lack of oxygen – it is significantly less successful in Tony's first solo, the theme setting "Something's Coming" which is so fast some of it is unintelligible, and allows for zero thought and contemplation, and even less impending excitement at an unknown possibility. I give Matthew Schleigh, an ideally cast Tony, much credit for carefully choosing places to breathe, but he was really pushing it opening night, which does not bode well for future weeks. One hopes vocal director Cedric Lyles will help Mr. Schleigh and several others in the cast to conserve their voices – five or six times a week at that pace could do damage.
