This was a thrilling, flawless production of the classic Broadway musical.

This modern take on ‘Romeo and Juliet’ still  holds up, with its story of rival gangs in New York sparring with each, other leading to tragedy consequences.

The scenes were played  out beautifully and the singing was first class. So many highlights. The songs ‘Maria’ and ‘America’ ‘Tonight’ in the first half were striking. The backdrops of various New York settings were very effective.

The ballet sequence  in the second half was mesmerising. The songs ‘I feel Pretty’, the poignancy of ‘Somewhere’ and the fun of  ‘Gee, Officer Krupke’  were tremendous. In one scene the cast and set go all white for one scene which was visually stunning.

Performances were uniformly excellent from the lead roles with Daniel Assenta playing Tony (Assenta was the understudy who was called up as a result of Todd Jacobssen’s illness and did a splendid job) and Sophie Salvesani playing Maria to Chloe Zuel playing Anita and Lyndon Watts playing Bernardo to roles such as Ritchie Singer playing Doc and Paul Dawber as Lt Schrank to those playing rival gang members such as Joshua Taylor playing the Jet, Action,   to  Anthony Garcia playing Shark, Chino,  to ‘swings’ like Amba Fewstar and Daniel Wijngaarden.

The show was sensational  to look at. Renate Schmitzer’s costumes were excellent as was Peter Halbsgut’s original lighting, re lit by Adam Sutton.

The Opera Australia Orchestra under the baton of Musical Director Donald Chan was note perfect and simply wonderful. The beauty of their playing added so much to the performance.

The complete music theatre. Highly recommended,  WEST SIDE STORY is playing the Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House  until Sunday October 6, 2019.

https://opera.org.au/whatson/events/west-side-story-sydney-opera-house