Houston Grand Opera’s Take On West Side Story Stays True to Leonard Bernstein’s Original Action-Packed Vision

Houston Grand Opera is in the business of producing masterpieces. Although one or two contemporary works make their way into each HGO season, the majority of the opera repertoire rests on works completed more than a hundred years ago. Its West Side Story is a more modern exception.

Bridging the classical and — for want of a better term — post-1960 contemporary opera with its timely plots, innovative harmonies and challenges to social taboos, comes the mid-century-modern Leonard Bernstein.

A musician, conductor and composer, Bernstein is widely considered the most important and influential American musical figure of the second half of the 20th century. His enduring masterpiece West Side Story has assured his star will burn brightly in the constellation of the greats of musical theater.

West Side Story‘s deeply romantic songs and soaring music incorporate elements of jazz, the Broadway sound of the day, and sweeping symphonic lines. The story, based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, brings the opera audience face to face with the tragedy of young lovers whose feuding families bring about the death of a son and a daughter whose only failing was believing love could overcome hate.

For its current production, Houston Grand Opera is leaning on the original version and script of the musical that opened on Broadway in 1957. That means HGO audiences are seeing, with very few changes, Bernstein’s original vision. His music and orchestration, Steven Sondheim’s lyrics, and Jerome Robbins’ spectacular choreography, brought to the Houston stage by revival choreographer Joshua Bergasse. Francesca Zambello directs.

A Tale of Conflict and Love

Unfortunately, the social injustices and ethnic divisions portrayed in West Side Story and its various adaptations remain as sad, dangerous and of the moment as they were when the Broadway show first opened 68 years ago.

Two teen gangs divided by ethnicity — Puerto Rican (the Sharks) and white (the Jets) — are vying for control of their neighborhood in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, a rough area in the 1950s, especially around 67th Street where the 1961 movie was filmed.

From the moment the curtain goes up, the music bursts to life, the dancing explodes and the energy is nuclear. And with the dissonant fanfare of horns and orchestra, we know we’re in the unique musical world of Leonard Bernstein.

His foreboding signature tritones in “Prologue” announce a series of conflicts — social, family and romantic love — about to unfold in the story that beg resolution.

(Try these two examples of Bernstein tritones, sometimes called “Devil’s intervals,” on your instrument at home if you want to hear the effect: C-F-B and G#-C#-G natural.)

But the core conflicts in West Side Story could apply to any competing identities, struggles we’re seeing played out at the moment all around us.

Shereen Pimentel, this Houston Grand Opera show’s Maria, received a bachelor’s degree in vocal arts from Juilliard. Pimentel emphasizes she wants audiences to enjoy the music, but also to see behind it.

“I want the audience to see the fight of two groups that are families,” Pimentel say. “People don’t join a gang just to fight. They fight for a sense of family and camaraderie, and for people who they feel love them and have their back. I want the audience to see how two groups are fighting for the same thing. . .

“And they end up fighting each other for it, which we see doesn’t go well.”

Many may remember West Side Story best for Maria and Tony’s impossible love story. After all, theirs are the heart-achingly romantic songs that remain popular to this day: “Maria,” “Tonight,” “I Have a Lov” and “One Hand, One Heart,” which Pimentel says is her favorite to sing.

However, in this production the love story between Maria and Tony seems to recede (but not disappear) into the background, upstaged by the noisy turf war between the Sharks and Jets and their retinue of passionately supportive girlfriends. They dance and sing with such exhilarating energy that makes it hard to stay in your seat.

The voice of Brenton Ryan, who plays Tony, is strong and powerful with a great range of high baritone up to a perfectly pitched falsetto. Soprano Pimentel’s upper register is clear and bell-like, and her acting is at its best when she is singing. Their voices blend well, but we don’t see a chemistry between them that burns so hot it will lead to what we already know is the conclusion.

Pimentel, now in her mid twenties, says her interpretation of 16-year-old Maria is “very teenage-like.”

“She’s just like, ‘I want to be free and have fun,’ which I think so many people can relate to when you’re 16-years old,” Pimentel says. “She jumps headfirst into things, and she gets so excited. She meets this guy Tony and falls in love at first sight.”

West Side Story Showstoppers

Director Zambello uses the elements of placement, lighting and setting, all wonderfully, to bring focus to renowned soprano Ana Maria Martinez (as the bridal shop owner) for her moving performance of “Somewhere.” With Martinez in the spotlight, even the pairs of dancers waltzing like dreamlike shadows in the background cannot detract from her presence or impact.

It doesn’t take long for the choreography and danced chorus numbers to become the stars of the show. When we meet Jets leader Riff (Kyle Coffman) in “Jets Song,” he sounds like Frank Sinatra, and he moves and dances captivatingly.

Riff’s counterpart Bernardo, Maria’s brother and the leader of the Sharks (Yurel Echezarreta), also bubbles over with charisma. When they’re on the stage, you can’t take your eyes off of them. They move like the high school tough guys in leather jackets you may have run into. Except these are hoodlums, and they’re not playing.

Bernstein’s music for the dance numbers — sometimes jazzy, sometime Latin, sometimes both at once — drives the chorus of gang members to a dizzying frenzy, pouring out their wounded pride and fury. They show that violence means little to them, because they believe they have little to lose.

For Bernardo, even the love of his lithesome and glamorous girlfriend Anita (accomplished dancer and mezzo-soprano Yesenia Ayala), cannot restrain the short-sighted recklessness that leads to his death.

Ayala brings her own star power to the stage. Her nuanced acting ability lifts the character of Anita above the trap of stereotype. Her strong voice and flamboyant dance virtuosity enhance the vibrant “America” and dramatic “A Boy Like That.” And she shines in Bernstein’s orchestral show-stopping dance at a school gym, where the rival gangs meet in an explosion of choreographed erotic energy and the girls are costumed in 1950s short party dresses.

Macy McKown as Anybodys deserves special mention. She is a fabulous dancer who developed a vision for her character to the max — the tomboy who wants to hang with the guys. Her vitality and intention assure her small, lightweight frame is not overpowered when she’s on the stage with them. To take liberties with boxer Muhammad Ali’s most famous quote: She dances like a butterfly and stings like a bee.

With more than 10 years as the artistic director of Houston Shakespeare Festival and decades of acting experience incorporating his uncommon sonorous voice, Jack Young as Doc was welcome as “the grownup in the room,” even if the boys overwhelm his good intentions in the end.

The nimble Nathan Keen was convincing as the irascible Action. He is the logical choice to take over leadership of the Jets, after Riff is killed and the gangs’ swaggering machismo has devolved into violence.

Houston Grand Opera’s West Side Story runs through next Sunday, February 15 at the Wortham Theater Center. It is a co-production of Houston Grand Opera, Glimmerglass Festival and Lyric Opera Company of Chicago. For more information and tickets, go here.