Front Row Centre Theatre review: WEST SIDE STORY

Theatre Review by Mark Andrew Lawrence (frontrowcentre@rogers.com)

A funny thing happened at Friday's opening night performance of WEST SIDE STORY at Meadowvale theatre.  Matthew McCarthy who was supposed to play Tony was felled by pneumonia and with just 36 hour of preparation, chorus member Marc Peters was drafted to play the role. 

Peters, a Grade 11 student at Cawthra Park Secondary School, has a beautiful voice, and plays his dramatic scenes with touching vulnerability. True, there are times he is a little too low-key, but that actually works fine for the character. 

He is given great support by Erica Feggans. She too has a beautiful voice and brings a believability and sweetness to Maria. Evan Smith has the natural charisma required for Riff, the leader of the Jets, while Brent Wilkinson and Maria DePalma makes a fiery Bernardo and Anita.

Danny Harvey who directed this production, deserves at least some of the praise here for helping shape these performances, but the transitions from scene to scene could use more fluidity. This is especially necessary in the last half of the show where the rising line of tension is defeated every time the action stops while the sets are shifted into place. Harvey, working with his designers could explore ways to choreograph the scene changes into the action.

WEST SIDE STORY was innovative because of its use of dance to express character. Anita describes the gang members as dancing "like they had to get rid of something, quick." That is the clue as to how the dances need to be staged: they require that urgency, and it is sadly lacking here. These are not chances for performers to show off, yet that is exactly what choreographer Cathy Smith has everyone doing, and it hurts the production.

Also hurting the production is the apparently under-rehearsed orchestra conducted by Jennifer Pearce. Leonard Bernstein's eclectic jazz-oriented score needs to be played with much more energy and precision.

Energy is the pulse that drives WEST SIDE STORY, but the final scenes were very affecting on opening night; all the more amazing given the challenges the cast faced with a different leading actor. Hopefully Matthew McCarthy will recover quickly and we will have a chance to see him on stage in a future production, along with others from this talented cast. 

WEST SIDE STORY plays at the Meadowvale Theatre, 6315 Montevideo Road, March 2-4 at 8 PM with a 2 PM matinee on the 4^th.

Tickets are available by calling (905) 615-4720.