West Side Story

R.C. Los Angeles, CA

Unfortunately this is a mediocre staging of a mighty musical. I went to the November 23rd Sunday matinee with hopes of experiencing, if not a riveting revitalization (ala Hair at the Met last year), at least a thouroughly enjoyable production that does justice to the famous creation of Mssrs. Robbins, Laurenents, Sondheim and Bernstein. What I saw was a poorly directed and unimpressively coreographed and orchestrated attempt marred by some spotty singing -- especially in the case of Clint Carter who portrayed a rather lackluster Tony and whose voice failed him in more than one musical number. The addition of distracting mics on the performers did not help. I left at intermission, after the big rumble that finishes Act 1 garnered only polite applause from the audience.