West Side Story

“most impressive and moving choreography I’ve seen…another home run”
Dean Richards, WGN-TV

“breathtaking…brimming with passion…big night out” 3.5/4 STARS
Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

“revelatory revival…genius, magic, gorgeous, major feat” HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times

“boldly re-imagined production may be the most authentic of its kind…unlike any other” 4/4 STARS
Barb Vitello, Daily Herald

“magical from start to finish…this is one to add to your ‘MUST SEE’ list” 5/5 STARS
Alan Bresloff, Around The Town Chicago

“stunning choreography and scenery…exhilarating performance…thrilling experience”
Eric Schelkopf, The Total Scene

“this is one terrific production that’ll definitely live in every audience member’s heart…quite definitely, this show is ‘the most beautiful sound I ever heard…’” HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Colin Douglas, Chicago Theatre Review

“this is the best…it’s a must…well worth the trip to Aurora” 3.5/4 STARS
John Olson, Chicago Theater Beat

RECOMMENDED
Noel Schecter, New City Stage

At eleven years old, as precocious community theatre kids are singing the “Jet Song,” belting it out word for word perfect, I want to be like them and have what they have. I want to know that song! A year later, sitting in a movie theater, captivated completely by Natalie Wood and these tough guys dancing on the big screen. As the story ends, I hear a teenage girl across the aisle sobbing uncontrollably, “Oh, Tony!” I sit in shock that he’s dead. Cotton mouth, can’t swallow my spit. The violence, adventure, romance, “surround sound” and Panavision! Fighting and killing and singing! This suburban boy’s life will never be the same!

The West Side Story that audiences love is the version I remember from my childhood. Now, it’s a different story. The social condition of two 1950s teenage street gangs, Puerto Rican immigrants versus American whites, in a turf war that wounds with racial slurs and switchblades has escalated to hate speech and shootings posted ​on social media, while on the nightly news we face political crisis on immigration and citizenship. It is a stunning realization to reference the very month and year the original production opened on Broadway, September, 1957: Jack Kerouac’s first novel, On the Road, defines the Beat Generation; The Civil Rights Act of 1957 (a voting rights bill for the disenfranchised black and white poor) is enacted establishing the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; and President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops to Arkansas to provide safe passage to “The Little Rock Nine” integrating Little Rock Central High School.

Leonard Bernstein’s symphonic jazz score, Arthur Laurents’ book and Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics challenge us now more than they ever imagined. Original choreographer, Jerome Robbins, wrote of a shared “aspiration” of us “long-haired artists” to “bring our deepest talents together” as “the true gesture of the show.” And now, here you are attending the most enduring musical in American Theatre, as Bernstein composed this tragedy like an abstract expressionist, with the percussive and dissonant expanding into the lyrical, poetic and beatific. Yet, our contemporary reality is brutal. In Shakespeare’s star-crossed tale, Juliet’s and her Romeo’s deaths end the feud. Not so in our daily lives. How and when will the killing end? Is there any hope for us at all?

— Jim Corti, Director of West Side Story & Paramount Artistic Director