West Side Story

When it opened on Broadway in 1957, West Side Story ran for 732 nights. It came to London a year later where it ran in the West End for 1,039 nights. In 1961 the legendary film version followed and was awarded 10 Oscars – one of the most prolific awardwinners in the history of Hollywood.

With its gritty, urban Romeo And Juliet theme, West Side Story revolutionised musical theatre. This production, directed by Joey McKneely, is as full-bodied as any of the earlier innumerable stagings.

The story bursts into life with an explosive opening dance sequence between the warring gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. For the next two-and-a-half hours the performers keep up a pace and energy that never flags.

Upper West Side, New York, during the 1950s, is well imagined by stage scenery of rambling iron railings and balconies on building exteriors that move back and forth to reveal projected vistas of New York’s tower blocks.

The oppressive heat of late summer is conjured up in the roaming packs of young men looking for a fight. The underlying racial tension is subtly brought out in the costumes of the Jets – born in America – and dressed in soft green and beige and contrasted with the inflammatory pink, yellow and hot red suits of the immigrant Puerto Rican Sharks.

Dressed in white, Maria and Tony stand apart visually, like beacons of doomed purity in a sea of violence. Elena Sancho Pereg as Maria and Liam Tobin as Tony are captivating, singing with poignancy and power.

There’s plenty of action onstage as groups form, dance and disperse, but there are moments of intimacy too, not just between Maria and Tony, but when Maria confides her love to her feisty friend Anita, who works with her in a bridal shop.

Only one or two moments of kitsch interrupt the action, such as when Maria’s brother Bernardo, and Riff, leader of the Jets, are hoisted into the air in a dream-like sequence re-enacting their murders. The red-circled patches on their white T-shirts tell us where the blade entered.

Otherwise this production keeps up a fast and furious pace until the end. So cleverly woven are the dance sequences, songs and dialogue that you’re almost distracted from the tragic sequence of events until they have taken place.

Debate still rages about whether West Side Story is a musical or an opera. With Leonard Bernstein’s score, Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics and Jerome Robbins’s choreography, it feels like a musical with operatic moments. This production scales all the heights.

Until 22 September at Sadler’s Wells, Rosebery Avenue, London EC1: 0844-412 4300, www.sadlerswells.com