In the upper West Side of New York City, the budding romance between a former gang member and the sister of a rival gang leader ignites a fierce and dangerous turf war between two teenage factions fighting for control of the streets.

Shoot, I really thought he was gonna make it this time

I haven’t managed to see this on stage before so it was basically everything I wanted it to be - faithfully remounting the original choreo and song order, including the dream ballet. Solid sets, excellent Tony/Maria/Anita/Riff, and the orchestra sounds lovely. See it if you want to know what the reference grade is, as revivals tend to tinker with or omit this or that

Act 1 is an enthralling, basically perfect act of musical theater and Act 2 is a lovable mess that nobody will ever manage to solve without having the absolute gall to write additional material for a Laurents/Bernstein/Sondheim show. I just think the interpolation from R&J’s death-by-poison to death-by-gunshot short-circuits too much of the space when you’re supposed to be experiencing dread, and they didn’t really know how to pad it out. Directors are left with a forced tradeoff between getting the pacing right and getting the tone right. After seeing it this way, I am definitely in the camp that “Gee Officer Krupke” must be moved to Act 1 if you’re going to include it at all, but what does that leave you with?—like a four-song Act 2?