West Side Story wows us at the Opera House

Tuesday night at the Opera House, this time to see the musical West Side Story

 at the Joan Sutherland theatre.

We'll be at the Opera House tomorrow night as well, for something else!

Had dinner at the Opera Bar, which has this menu ordering app, 

so you order and pay with your phone and the food and drinks appear as if by magic. 

Cool eh! Way of the future I guess. At least there's no more waiting for a bill at the end of a meal.

The show was wonderful. 

Great singing and wonderfully choreographed.

What's the big hit?

Where to begin? Nearly every song in the musical is a bona fide Broadway hit. ‘America,’ ‘Somewhere,’ ‘Tonight,’ ‘I Feel Pretty,’ and ‘Something’s Coming’.
https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/backstage/music/west-side-story-cheat-sheet.html

(not allowed to take photos of course so I borrowed these from the web).

The set was simple but wonderful as well.

What's the story?

The Jets (a gang of all-American boys) are at war with the Sharks (a gang of Puerto Rican boys), 
and the Upper West Side is their battleground.

When Tony (a former Jet) and Maria (a Puerto Rican girl) 
meet and fall in love, the pair wonder if they can 
overcome the deep rivalries between their communities. 

Optimistically, they sing: 
“There’s a place for us, somewhere a place for us.”
But the two gangs see it differently, 
and the stage is set for a bloody fight.


(Not to give anything away, 

but the story is based on Romeo and Juliet, 

and we all know how that ends.)

https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/backstage/music/west-side-story-cheat-sheet.html

Conversation starters

In 1949 up-and-coming choreographer Jerome Robbins,

originally planned to write a story about a star-crossed romance
between a Jewish girl and Catholic boy on New York’s Upper East Side. 

Co-creators, Bernstein (music) and Laurents (book) changed his mind when Puerto Rican 

and American gang violence began to figure in the news.
Robbins visited a high school dance in a Puerto Rican neighbourhood 

of New York to get real-life inspiration for his choreography
Robbins wouldn’t let the original Jets and Sharks 

casts mix, to help create real tension on set. 

They rehearsed in different rooms and weren’t allowed to eat lunch together.
Chita Rivera, who played Anita on Broadway, 

and dancer Tony Mordente, who was a Jet, 

actually got married and had a child! 

(And that was in spite of Robbins’ ban on Shark-Jet socialising).
Robbins decided not to kill off Maria after composer 

Richard Rodgers told him: “She’s dead already, after this all happens to her.”
Bernstein and Sondheim had a late stroke of inspiration and wrote 

‘Something’s Coming’ just 12 days out from opening night.
The 1961 film brought home 10 Academy Awards, 

and still holds the record for most awards won by a musical.
Sondheim made up nonsense street slang so the language wouldn’t date. 

He wanted it to be the first Broadway musical to use the 'F word', 

 but learned they’d never get a cast album approved. 

The boys say ‘Krup you!’ instead.

 https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/backstage/music/west-side-story-cheat-sheet.html