JPC cast of West Side Story. Photo / Tony Whitehead
JPC cast of West Side Story. Photo / Tony Whitehead
REVIEW
WHAT: West Side Story WHERE: Casa Blanca Theatre WHEN: Until May 11
The great advantage school productions have over their adult counterparts is the continuous well of new talent they have to draw on.
As one student intake moves on a new one replaces them bringing fresh faces, different voices tobe nurtured into class acts
This is something John Paul College (JPC), with its commitment to theatre, both musical and dramatic, has capitalised on with the outstanding shows it brings end on end.
From curtain up its latest, West Side Story, underscores this many times over.
As a show that debuted on Broadway in 1957 it would be easy for it to have become passé, but not when JPC re-invigorates it more than 60 years on.
The core story is way older; recognised as the equivalent of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, it plays out on a continent not settled until a century after the Bard penned his romantic tragedy.
Boy and girl from diverging backgrounds fall in love but convention dictates the divide between them can't be breached. West Side Story's divide's racial.
Teenage New York hoodlums, the Jets, and their Puerto Rican adversaries, the Sharks, are deadly rivals (literally). When Jets' Tony (Oliver Smythe) falls for Maria (Marian Yao), the sister of the Sharks' head honcho, the heartbreaking outcome's inevitable.
So what's new in a show with such lengthy antecedents? In the hands of JPC's cast and crew, led by multi-award winning director John Drummond, it's nothing and everything.
All the old pathos is there, the familiar Leonard Bernstein music and Stephen Sondheim lyrics (Maria, I Feel Pretty, Somewhere, et al) remain captivating, yet with JPC delivering them they're as fresh as the day those collaborators created them.
The high octane dance sequences choreographer Samantha Rowe has nurtured are elevated from being simply competent to works of complex art, as are the fight scenes.
A Year 13 student, Smythe's previous theatre experience (this is his 12th show) made him a shoo-in for the role he handles with the confidence of the pro he's become. Yao's acting is equally polished, her upper vocal range is stunning.
All in supporting roles carry the show to top-of-the-class status.
JPC cast of West Side Story. Photo / Tony Whitehead
Drummond describes his set design, incorporating a high upstage fence, as representing the barriers of intolerance and hatred.
How apt in a country which, since the dreadful events of March 15, has embraced the "you are us, we are one people" mantra of inclusiveness.
The only worry with this production is that having raised its performance bar even higher than it previously was how can the school lift it further? Being JPC it undoubtedly will.
