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Cree Henson as Tony and Amelie Newton as Maria Pictures: Jonathan Hipkiss West Side Story Stage Experience The Alexandra Theatre ***** West Side Story changed musical theatre for ever and this wonderful young cast have paid the landmark giant full justice in a performance brimming with raw drama and tension, heartfelt emotion and no little shortage of talent. Leading the line are West Side's Romeo and Juliet, Tony and Maria, and Cree Henson and Amelie Newton owned the roles from the moment they first appeared. Both are old hands at Stage Experience, Amelie first appeared in the 2017 production of the game changing musical while Cree is in his third production after playing Schlomo in Fame and Capt Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, and the pair are simply superb. Cree gives us a credible Tony, the ex member of the Jets, the Polish American street gang. He has grown out of the constant macho turf wars with the Sharks, the Puerto Rican rival gang, and has grown up, finding a steady job at Doc's drug store and soda shop. In truth he never comes over as truly reformed gangbanger – he was a gang member all right, but you suspect his heart was never in the violence and macho posturing, he became a Jet by peer convention rather than personal commitment. Amelie's Maria wants more than merely transporting life in San Juan to the Upper West Side of Manhattan and she finds it in Tony. She gives us an innocence and naivety as the young girl trapped in an old life in a new world in the midst of a war between cultures, established white Americans at the wrong end of society and the more recent immigrant arrivals . . . seem familiar? Her anguish, pain and anger in the dramatic finale are palpable, every heart in the audience goes out to her as she creates an exquisitely painful emotional moment. The pair have wonderful, trained voices with Cree sporting a well-controlled tenor with a fine range and Amelie a clear as a bell soprano and they blend well together on duets such as One Hand One Heart and Tonight. They are well supported by their respective gang leaders, Maria's older and protective brother Bernardo played with simmering anger and resentment by Hudson Mansaour-Webb and for the Jets, Riff played by Billy Stait, with a misguided sense of not so much white supremacy as simple resentment of outsiders moving into an area the Jets see as their turf. A turf war over a few blocks only the landlords really own.
When you're a Jet, You're a Jet all the way Both are new to Stage Experience and both have played lead roles at Birmingham Ormiston Academy with Hudson also adding the prestigious Royal Ballet School to his CV. Their hatred of each other seems real with Hudson's Latino temper on a hair trigger clashing with Billy's more nuanced and calculating descent into violence, exemplified by his leading the Jets in Cool. Bernardo's girlfriend is Anita, who happens to be Maria's best friend and Heaven Okah gives us an Anita who doesn’t suffer fools gladly, happy to stand up to Bernardo and anyone else for that matter. She gives us a lively America and a heartfelt duet with Maria of the bitter A Boy Like That led by Anita which tempers into Maria's hurt at the loss of her brother and her unshakeable feeling for Tony with I Have A Love. I have a love, and it's all that I have. Right or wrong, what else can I do? I love him, I'm his, And everything he is I am, too. Around them are the gang members and their girls, with the always angry, fists ready Action, a simmering Jacob Fear who leads the Jets in the show's moment of light relief with Gee, Officer Krupke. Among the Sharks we have Chino, engaged to Maria, although it is clear she does not love him and the union is arranged or at least expected rather than one that has developed. Nye Henson gives us a quiet, serious Chino, and he represents the epitome of the endless cycle of vengeance and violence that consumes the Sharks and the Jets fighting over . . . only they know the answer to that. He is both the epitome of the war and by his shooting of Tony, the catalyst for the peace. The Sharks also have Consuela, played by Lucy Niamh Skidmore, who sings the iconic Somewhere with a stunning soprano voice during the nightmare, dream sequence in Act II. Among the teen gangs we have Stephen Johns as Doc, the drugstore owner who have served up sodas to the community for a quarter of a century, who despairs at the endless violence, and then there is Nicholas Room as Shrank, the racist police lieutenant who hates the Puerto Ricans, the PRs, with a vengeance and is happy to help the Jets drive them off the streets, yet we find he is no fan of the Jets, he just dislikes them less than the Sharks. And, trying to integrate the sworn enemies we have Liam Cox as the hapless social worker Gladhand, organising the dance to bring both sides together, with snowballs and hell springing to mind.
Amelie Newton as Maria with Heaven Okah as Anita joined in grief at the death of Bernado This young cast and crew with more than 70 involved have helped create a magical piece of theatre with perhaps, with a fair wind, showcasing some of the stars of tomorrow. In the pit was an excellent 15 piece orchestra under musical director Chris Newton to bring the score to dramatic life. The set is bleak, colourless, with wire barriers, fire escapes and all the signs of run down tenements in equally run down neighbourhoods. If there was a fault it was in the sound where quality and balance was wanting initially but it settled down over time. It is a problem not unknown on opening nights, especially with new productions, when all the levels carefully set in rehearsals are thrown out, as far as sound is concerned, by the inconvenience and absorption of a full house. I must confess it is my all time favourite musical, one which broke all the conventions of musical theatre and rewrote the rule book. It starts, not with a big number, but marauding gangs of youths, and who would end a first act in silence with just two dead bodies on stage, or have a finale of a funereal drum beat and procession off with a dead hero. The dance numbers from the original director and choreographer, the legendary Jerome Robbins, are part of the story, not song and dance numbers, and the story itself is a continuous narrative from Arthur Laurents, shadowing Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the lyrics are from what was then a young and little known Stephen Sondheim while the musical score was from classical giant Leonard Bernstein, with each song being part of the story and encompassing operatic themes, classical, jazz, show tunes and Latin & Afro-Caribbean rhythms, illustrating the clash of cultures. Dance, plot and songs working in unison, all dependent on each other. It opened the door for the likes of Hamilton and even Fiddler on the Roof which arrives at the Alex over Christmas. Director and choreographer Pollyann Tanner brought the first stage experience to the Alex in 2003 under the then name of Summer Youth Project with the idea of being the bridge between youth theatre and professional theatre bringing in professional discipline to show youngsters from around the Midlands what life is like in the hard world of commercial theatre, with just two weeks rehearsal deadlines, long hours and hard work, and this is yet another of her memorable productions. The action and fights are effective and well controlled, the romance real without becoming sentimental and the dance, even in the lively America, has a hard edge, while from the gangs it is aggressive and macho posturing. Dance just maintains the underlying tension. The annual showcase has produced stars such as Tony from the 2017 production, Elliot Gooch, appears in the West End, and Liam Doyle, with two Stage Experience shows in his CV is another with West End and touring experience. This current crop have shown they have the talent they just need the theatre gods to smile down kindly on them. The result is a vibrant, exciting show creating a musical that that is a stage experience for cast and audience alike. Roger Clarke 14-08-25 A teenage view This production of West Side Story marked the 20th Stage Experience at the Alexandra Theatre with 20 productions 15 titles, starting in 2003, and showcasing 2148 participants from all corners of the Midlands. The classic musical. First produced In 1957 it was based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and changed the face of musicals forever and this young cast brought the story of New York street gangs to sparkling life. The story relies on a strong Tony and Maria, the musical's Romeo and Juliet, played by Cree Henson and Amelie Newton who lit up the story with authentic portrayals. Cree played Tony very well and his voice was outstanding but maybe needed to show a little bit more feeling. I thought Amelie showed good emotion especially in the final scene in which she really shone. They were both excellently supported by Riff and Bernardo played by Billy Stait and Hudson Mansour Webb respectively, the leaders of the two opposing teenage gangs, the Jets, the Polish Americans, and the Sharks, the Puerto Rican immigrants. It was a really enjoyable production and I would recommend it to anyone over the age of 12. Like all of the productions at the Alex it was directed and choreographed by Pollyann Tanner who turns two weeks of intensive rehearsals ad professional discipline into a professional standard show. Hallam Clarke |
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