This West Side Story soars

Theatre Ancaster’s production of classic, and still timely, musical is full of stellar performances, spectacle and energy.

Heading home from Theatre Ancaster’s mainstage production of West Side Story, I reflected on the wealth of talent we have in the Hamilton area from actors and musicians to singers and dancers. Now heading into its final weekend, the cast of West Side Story reveals that the area will certainly be well represented into the future by its emerging young performers.

Theatre Ancaster’s conservatory company populates the working class streets of 1950s New York City with the musical inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Amid local turf wars and racial tensions, young lovers Tony and Maria nurture a budding love despite the pressures of their families and friends, suffocating social expectations, and escalating hostilities between two neighbourhood gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. 

West Side Story is a musical heavyweight, of course, conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and book by Arthur Laurents. It’s difficult to overstate its continuing cultural significance. The original 1957 Broadway production opened at Winter Garden Theatre and marked the legendary Sondheim’s Broadway debut. It was called “bold” and “modern” by the critics, who mused on how the musical would influence future Broadway productions. West Side Story was nominated for six Tony Awards in 1958, including Best Musical, and won two non-acting Tonys. After over 700 performances on Broadway, the musical went on to have a successful run on London’s West End and staged in numerous revivals and international productions. Some iconic talents have been seen in West Side Story. Chita Rivera played Anita in both the original Broadway and West End productions. In the 1980 Broadway revival, performer and choreographer Debbie Allen took up the role.

Meanwhile, the popular 1961 film version of the musical featured stars such as Natalie Wood (Maria) and Rita Moreno (Anita), who became the first Latina to win an Oscar for her performance. The film was nominated for 11 Oscars and won 10, including Best Picture. Most recently, Stephen Spielberg directed another Academy Award-winning film adaptation in 2021 with a cast including Rachel Zegler as Maria and Ariana DeBose as Anita.

Despite its emergence in the 1950s, West Side Story continues to represent timely themes. As Nupi Gokhale says in her director’s notes, “In 2025, we find ourselves in a society still wrestling with many of the same questions. Who belongs? Who decides? How do we bridge the divides between us, be they cultural, racial, generational, or ideological?” Gokhale goes on to remark that “... West Side Story becomes not just a period piece, but a living conversation between generations.”

Tony and Maria’s neighbourhood is multiethnic and working class in a post-war America struggling with its worldview. The promise of the “American Dream” proves much more elusive for the individuals in West Side Story, especially those who have migrated from Puerto Rico, caught in a pressure cooker of poverty and racism. At the centre of the action is the animosity and growing conflict between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs. The Sharks are Puerto Rican and the Jets are predominantly white, and the public spaces are tense with anticipation of the moment when someone or something will light a match to this powder keg. Tony and Maria’s love, extending across gang lines, provides the inevitable and tragic flame.

This was my first experience seeing West Side Story apart from scenes from the 1961 film version and being taught to sing “Somewhere” and “America” in middle-school music class decades ago. Theatre Ancaster’s production provides a solid introduction to the iconic musical.

A stand-out performance comes from Riley Daniel Macnab as Tony, with his stunningly strong and operatic voice. The audience erupted numerous times with a loud and rapturous response to Macnab’s remarkable vocals, and this was very well deserved. Bravo!

Mia Rodriguez-Sosa as Maria also graces the show with beautiful vocals, this time with a sweetness and purity well-suited to portraying a modern Juliet who is like a dove caught in a grimy, and ultimately violent, cage. She manages to hold her own in a musical that seems to favour the more worldly and eye-catching Anita. Gabriela Velasquez leaves a memorable mark with her portrayal, singing, dancing, and acting with an appealing balance of realism and sass.

It must be noted that Devin France, as Doc/Glad Hand, makes the most of his time on stage by providing the production with well-executed moments of humour and morality in a story that is mostly a tragedy. Well done.

The spectacle and energy of the fight scenes and dance numbers would not be possible without the rest of the company, who contribute their best to well-choreographed and vibrant scenes. The girls’ colourful and swishy dresses with petticoats were a pleasure to see. The show really seems to find its groove by the mid-point of Act One and then retains its flow. Holding it all together is the unseen live band, keeping up the pace and complementing its actors. Well done to director Gokhale, musical director and conductor Jenn Evans-Laframboise, choreographer Janessa Pudwell, costume designer Jaida Lapsley, set designer Rachel Beales, and the rest of the creative and production team.

“At the heart of this production is the ballad “Somewhere” that sings of longing for peace and understanding, where love can thrive in the absence of fear. Somewhere is a place not yet found, but deeply hoped for,” Gokhale says. “It is a dream and a challenge. Imagine a world not defined by differences, but united by a shared humanity.”

Indeed, it’s truly emotional and a beautiful reprieve when the Theatre Ancaster soloist and company perform “Somewhere.”

Theatre Ancaster’s next production is The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler from Sept. 12-21.

NEED TO KNOW

West Side Story
Continues Aug. 15 & 16, 7:30 p.m. and Aug. 16 & 17, 2 p.m.
Theatre Ancaster
Ancaster Memorial Arts Centre
357 Wilson St. E., Ancaster
Box office: 905-304-3232 or boxoffice@memorialarts.ca
More information: theatreancaster.com
Audience warnings: offensive language, violence, flashing and strobe lights, haze