The more things change, the more they stay the same, especially when the musical in question is West Side Story, writes Theresa Smith
JONATHAN Roxmouth (pictured) remembers that West Side Story was the first musical movie his mother insisted he watch as a child: “She said it was important music. I remember thinking it was two people on a balcony somewhere in New York and a couple of people were upset about it,” he recalls that first viewing as an almost 6-year-old.
Now, as an adult, he realises where the Tony Award-winning musical fits into theatre history and is amazed at how few people have seen the stage production.
“People say: ‘Oh, is the show based on the movie?’ We’ve come to that part of the circle,” Roxmouth said.
His own research into the American musical (which features music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and choreography by Jerome Robbins to a story told in Arthur Laurents’s book) showed him that it was “the first time that everything was done together”.
“It was the first time they needed triple threats. Up to that point it was song, scene, song, scene, then the dancers would come on, but this time they integrated it,” he described West Side Story, the musical.
The original story was set in an ethnically mixed, blue-collar, 1950s Upper West Side New York City neighbourhood which would be cleared in an urban renewal project in the 1960s. The musical explores the rivalry between two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds – the Puerto Rican Sharks and the Caucasian Jets.
Roxmouth finds it terrifying that the issue of xenophobia is still just as topical now as it was when the book was first turned into a musical.
One thing the Fugard Theatre production team (the same team behind The Rocky Horror Show, Kat and the Kings, Blood Brothers and Cabaret) haven’t changed is Bernstein’s sophisticated musical arrangement. The score includes classics such as Maria, Somewhere, I Feel Pretty and One Hand, One Heart which have been re-recorded over the years by artists ranging from Tuck and Patti to Mandy Patinkin.
“They haven’t touched the arrangements and they still affect people the same way,” said Roxmouth.
He plays Tony, a former member of the Jets, best friend to the gang’s leader, who falls in love with Maria (played by Lynelle Kenned), sister to Bernardo (Christopher Jaftha), leader of the Sharks.
“In many aspects I am not the ideal Tony. He is normally a boy, a smaller guy, quite slight, the innocent. In this version they are focusing more on the idea that Tony is an ex-gang member, and that is in the book, that it is about six months since he gave up being a Jet.”
Playing off the supposition that people who leave gangs often do so because life has become too hectic and they want to turn over a new leaf, Roxmouth is playing Tony as disillusioned and bit of a loner: “With this version, it’s going to be a surprise, that Tony is far more rough around the edges, he’s not the American boy next door. Tony is so often a boring role because you have the best songs, but you’re basically the glue holding all the exciting bits together, but you aren’t exciting. Where (director) Matthew (Wild) is allowing us to try something new with Tony is to make him far more three-dimensional in that he also struggles, also has stuff to face.”
Another holdover from the original production is that dance is the medium through which the Sharks and the Jets express themselves, whereas the two leads of Tony and Maria sing, but don’t do much dancing: “But, this approach is to try to integrate the two leads into the musical and the action. It makes the relationships, and ultimately the betrayal, far more affecting,” he said.
Choreographer Louisa Talbot has reworked the choreography, which draws mostly on the work of Jerome Robbins, though through a lens of contemporary hip hop. She says the choreography “was ahead of its time” but she always likes to bring a bit of herself and the dancers into new work.
“Also,” added Roxmouth, “the dynamic between Maria and I in the show isn’t that pure, sacred, slightly boring, virginal kind of thing. The bottom line is you’re talking about two kids falling in love and first and foremost there is that tension. Before, it was always that idealistic thing of ‘we’re falling in love’ whereas this is real, with everything that comes with that.”
l West Side Story, Artscape Opera House, Thursday (this is the Fugard Theatre’s first out-of-house production) from Thursday to August 23, Tuesdays to Friday at 8pm, Saturdays at 4pm and 8pm and Sundays at 2pm and 6pm. Bookings: Computicket or Artscape at 021 421 7695.