When it first bowed on Broadway in 1957, “West Side Story” was a revelation for multiple reasons. It dealt with social issues, including urban racism and gang violence, in an unusually forthright way. And, grounded in the aesthetically sophisticated foundation of Leonard Bernstein’s regal score and Jerome Robbins’s balletic choreography, it was a high point of the great American middlebrow era’s life on the stage.
If George Gershwin aimed to dress up jazz for a night at the opera, Bernstein instead brought touches of art song into a fusion with vernacular styles that, in “West Side Story,” creates a heady, ever-swinging mélange of jazz ballet, sentimental show songs, and a soupçon of what Jelly Roll Morton famously termed “the Spanish tinge.”
Fiddlehead Theatre Company’s production, now at the Strand Theatre in a limited run ending Sunday, puts the show’s prime assets front and center. Bernstein’s music sounds vivid as rendered by a 22-person orchestra conducted by Charles Peltz, and director Stacey Stephens clearly cast his large ensemble with dance ability at the forefront.
If some of Stephens’s previous productions here were imbued with high concept — see the post-9/11 staging of “Jesus Christ Superstar” in April — this “West Side Story” is clean and crisp. And while it will always be difficult for actors portraying gang members to look menacing while gracefully turning pirouettes, the raw racial tensions at play in Arthur Laurents’s book could hardly feel more present. Each ethnic slur lands with a sharp bite, and the racist sneering of police Lieutenant Schrank (Daniel Boudreau) underscores a topicality that need not be overplayed to make its impact.
Mac Young’s flexible scenic design has a deliberately unfinished whiff to it — scaffolding extends into the orchestra section, a ladder leans against a balcony opera-box — that could imply the changing nature of the story’s New York neighborhood. (Remember that the show’s title refers to the no longer blighted Upper West Side, and much of its gang turf has since been razed and remade as Lincoln Center.) Brick facades with cutaways prove a flexible environment for scenes set on the street, a pharmacy, and the apartment where Maria (Kim Corbett) receives her forbidden lover in a balcony scene recalling the indelible source material, Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
Alas, the chemistry between Maria and Jeffrey Zicker’s Tony is an oddly sexless one; she feels more like his beard than star-crossed lover. Corbett maintains an operatic pitch with her confident vocals, sometimes overpowering her scene partners. Zicker’s singing strengthens over the course of the performance and peaks with a transporting “Somewhere.”
Waldemar Quinones-Villanueva has tremendous presence as Bernardo and looks like a million bucks in the all-white costume designed by Stephens. Pamela Turpen crafts a strong performance as Anita, excelling as actress, dancer, and singer. Stephens smartly floods the stage with his 30-person cast, and the ensemble dance numbers are uniformly excellent.
Hanging over “West Side Story” is a weary sense that hate is a burden for those who carry it. After a slur-filled tirade, Lieutenant Schrank casts a guilty glance at Doc (a quietly graceful John Davin), who has overheard. “You try keeping hoodlums in line,” the officer says ruefully, “and see what it does to you.” Fiddlehead’s production honors this show’s big moments, but finds resonance in small ones like these.
WEST SIDE STORY
Based on a conception by Jerome Robbins. Book by Arthur Laurents. Music by Leonard Bernstein. Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Directed by Stacey Stephens. At Strand Theatre, Dorchester. Tickets: 617-229-6494, www.fiddleheadtheatre.com
Jeremy D. Goodwin can be reached at jeremy@jeremydgoodwin.com.