No fewer than four central Ohio performing arts organizations are part of an effort to bring a multifaceted adaptation of West Side Story to the stage.
The product of a unique collaboration among CAPA, Opera Columbus, BalletMet and the Columbus Symphony Orchestra comes to the Ohio Theatre Feb. 13-16.
Opera Columbus is responsible for production and direction, choreography is by BalletMet Artistic Director Remi Wörtmeyer and the orchestra will be conducted by the orchestra’s music director, Rossen Milanov. Director Allegra Libonati is particularly excited by the opportunity to bring together so many talented Columbus artists.
“This is the first time that all these companies are working together on a show and to work together on West Side Story, which is this musical masterpiece, I think, is really thrilling,” says Libonati. “You rarely get to do this piece on this scale. … It’s got potential to be quite an outstanding one-of-a-kind version of this production.”
Reimagining a classic
The vaunted tragedy, which premiered on Broadway in 1957 featuring music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, is a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet set in 1950s New York City. Two teenagers from rival street gangs, the Jets and Sharks, fall in love, but their romance is threatened due to tension and violence between the two groups.
Opera Columbus
Allegra Libonati
“It’s being produced as an opera, essentially,” says Libonati. “The casting is ultimately done by Opera Columbus, and then BalletMet is coming in as a troupe. However, the ballet is going to be deeply integrated throughout the show, so at the end of the day, you wouldn’t really even be able to tell, because they all have to be one family. … The symphony is, of course, their own entity entirely. They are bringing the music, which is one of the most powerful parts of the show, and certainly one I’m really looking forward to.”
Jennifer Zmuda
Wörtmeyer only joined BalletMet this past June, so when he had the opportunity to work on his favorite musical – and the first one he ever saw – he couldn’t say no.
West Side Story was conceived and created by a ballet choreographer, Jerome Robbins, one of the most influential American choreographers,” says Wörtmeyer. “West Side Story is one of the most highly danced musicals anyway, but now we’re elevating that (by) adding in the exceptional ability of the opera singers, and the exceptional, elite ability of the ballet company and the ballet dancers.”
Bold new additions
West Side Story traditionally features ballet dancers in the famous dream ballet sequence accompanying memorable Act 2 song “Somewhere.” The scene and the high-energy “America” number were some of Wörtmeyer’s favorite sections to choreograph.
“We’ve really been having such a ball in the studio and just adding so much extra technical ability in those scenes and reshaping them,” he says. “It is inspired by Jerome Robbins, but it is reimagined for the ballet dancers.”
Libonati points to the beautiful, ornately detailed and large-scale Ohio Theatre as a key inspiration in her directorial choices, expressing confidence that the audience will hear and feel the show in a new way.
“You know, you can do West Side Story … very small,” she says. “But we’re having here, throughout our culture, the opportunity to really let it sing out as loud as it is, and as loud as it can be, in a space that can contain that.”
Wörtmeyer lauds the partnership among the four arts organizations as another key factor in the show’s potential.
“It’s not often that we’re equal partners in it and coming together to utilize all our strengths in performance,” he says. “It’s dance at its very best and most physical and fun, and with incredible singing and music.”
Kate Shields is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
