Raypha Fredrick
West Side Story
This play is called “West Side Story” a musical from a book written by Author Laurents,
inspired by Shakespears famous “Romeo and Juliet”. It starrs these young actors that play as
“The Jets” and they do alot of singing of dancing which I personally like and enjoy to watch. The
story that i understand from the beginning has something to do with two different groups that I
quickly realized that one group consist of Americans also known as the americans and the other
group that is lead by a Puerto Rican called “The Sharks”.
The understanding of this play to me is that the Jets have their conflicts within there
group, either with romance or against their rival “The Sharks”. They sing and dance together
many times in the play. The two different groups have many conflicts against each other which
where they then call for a “Rumble”. Tony a member of the Jets claims that he fell in love with
on the Shark girls, where they keep their relationship and feelings on the low from the rest of
their friends.
The play had so many different choregraphed acts going on, from mostly singing that was
followed with dancing and actions scene. Tony had many parts of the play that was performed
very well. From the vocals of his singing to his facial expressions and body language it was all
performed professionally. While I was watching the play I couldn’t tell if they made any errors
in the play, all actors on stage were in sync and did not show any signs of nervousness. Overall
the whole act crew was “spot-on” and to me could not be any better.
While watching the play, I tried to imagine how would it been if I was to be put in that
place. The design and props in the background were well done for the most part. It had alot of
empty spaces on stage that were obvious, but I know that was done for a reason on how they
transitioned scene from scene using the space on stage. The vocals were loud and clear listening
even with their accents it was understandable for me. The lighting was dim and some scenes it
was a little difficult for me to see what was going on.
I truly thought the play was well-performed by a group of young actors and actresses. As
I watched the play of “West side Story” there were some parts that I felt that I could relate to. I
would rather watch a play with others rather than watching that two-hour play by myself where I
caught myself many times almost sleeping away from it. The costumes and outfits were pretty
slick. The acting was so good to watch, you could almost say those young actors and actresses
were professionals. I wondered what it did take for them to keep practicing for them to get it
down perfectly, because for one, it a long play so there are no breaks and do-overs if one messes
up badly. Seeing the choreography of the fights and dances and the overall movement on stage
were all beyond impressive. I would highly recommend this to watch if you are a huge fan of
Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”.
References
https://www.joshuadenning.net/west-side-story-2