Well the Missus and I trundled over to Uphams Corner to catch the Fiddlehead Theatre Company production of West Side Story and say, it felt pretty . . . swell.
The Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim retelling of Romeo and Juliet is wonderful material to work with, and director Stacey Stephens does a notable job of retelling it once again. The staging is dynamic, Wendy Hall’s choreography is delightfully kinetic, and the cast is uniformly terrific.
Special mention should go to Theo Lencicki as Riff and Waldemar Quinones-Villanueva as Bernardo. The voices of Kim Corbett’s Maria and Jeffrey Zicker’s Tony blend beautifully, and Pamela Turpen fairly sizzles as Anita.
It’s at the Strand through next weekend. Seriously, go see it.
P.S.
Two things the Missus and I noted:
1) This production drew the most diverse audience we’ve seen since we went to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus six years ago.
2) The audience was infinitely better-behaved than any we’ve encountered on Broadway in umpteen years.
Just sayin’.
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