The urgency of West Side Story is played out to near perfection

Australian Opera’s West Side Story on the water has its rough moments, but it all seems to fit appropriately together in the end.

Australia Opera’s West Side Story on Sydney Harbour.

MUSICAL THEATRE

West Side Story. Opera Australia. Fleet Steps, Mrs Macquaries Point, Sydney, March 22.

Shakespeare squeezed the action of Romeo and Juliet into about four days. Updated to 1950s New York in West Side Story, everything happens in less than two. That’s all it takes for star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria to fall in love and fall victim to the enmity of their respective communities.

The urgency is thrilling. It’s summoned immediately by Leonard Bernstein’s exhilaratingly spiky music, it’s there in Jerome Robbins’s muscular, extended dance sequences and in the best of Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics as they take a direct route to what the heart wants.

The book by Arthur Laurents was pared to the minimum during the show’s development, meaning much of West Side Story’s impact comes from these heightened, inextricably intertwined forms of expression. Just like opera really.

Dance is courtship, bonding and fighting. A click of a finger is an expression of cool, a summons or a dismissal. Brass, percussion and syncopation electrify the senses.

Robbins, who came up with the original concept, was a nightmare to work with but his inspiration resulted in one of the masterpieces of 20th century theatre.

West Side Story was rightly a huge hit for Opera Australia in 2019 and it’s great to see it back on OA’s vast floating stage on Sydney Harbour. Set designer Brian Thomson’s neglected cityscape still works its dark magic and musical director Guy Simpson returns too, leading a 28-piece band in a scorching account of the score.

West Side Story on Sydney Harbour

Francesca Zambello’s production, revived by Eric Sean Fogel, has rough edges that weren’t there last time but this is a show that can bear it.

The women’s big showpiece, America, was under par but the scrappiness at the dance hall, where the New York-born Jets and Puerto Rican immigrant Sharks are fruitlessly exhorted to make nice with one another, felt right.

It showcased the mindless aggression of young men who judge themselves by loyalty to the group. As one kid says to another at one point, their bond lasts “from sperm to worm”.

Set against this roiling pool of testosterone, the attraction between Maria (Nina Korbe) and Tony (Billy Bourchier) is an oasis of light and calm.

There’s no higher praise for Korbe than to say she scores A+ in the I Feel Pretty test. Maria’s Act II opener is something of an embarrassment but Korbe makes us believers with a delightful mix of self-awareness and sweet pleasure.

Korbe is starting to move up the operatic ladder (she’s a Young Artist with Opera Queensland) and Maria is a wonderful part for her. She’s a natural who looks the part effortlessly and brings a gleaming, expressive soprano to the show’s loveliest songs, including the imperishable Tonight and Somewhere.

West Side Story on Sydney Harbour

Tony is arguably a trickier role. It’s surprising to hear the Jets speak of his importance to their gang, particularly given Bourchier’s eager boyishness. He may not convince as a punk but his fresh, light tenor is enormously appealing.

Kimberley Hodgson’s tough, realistic Anita completes a fine trio of leads. Anita is pivotal to the drama and Hodgson more than made up for opening night’s fuzzily focused America with her searing A Boy Like That.

West Side Story is unfortunately no snapshot of the past. The Jets’ attack on Anita that precipitates Tony’s death is more shocking than ever, as is the racism spat at the Puerto Ricans.

Zambello’s ending, in which she withholds the reconciliation flagged in the show’s synopsis, sadly seems just about right.

Tickets: $79-$379. Bookings: online. Duration: 2hrs 45mins including interval. Ends April 21.