I saw the performance of West Side Story when it came to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on April 27, 2013. This was the first time I had seen this live and the only experience I had with West Side before this was the movie, but I have seen enough musicals to know what to look for in this musical tour.
I was impressed with the singing, especially with Michelle Alves playing Anita, her voice blew me away! The two people playing the roles of the two main leads, Tony (Addison Reid Coe) and Maria (MaryJoanna Grisso), were very good, their voices worked very well together, however, I could not hear the speaking voice of Coe very well, it may, or may not have been the mic. Guy Mandia Jr. who played the role of Action did a very good job, he had a deep voice and was loud enough to hear, I was very impressed. I honestly was not expecting the character Anybodys (Bridget Riley) to sing, and wow! Riley had a very high, very good soprano (?) voice, which was discovered in the song “Somewhere”. The accents for the Puerto Ricans were very, very thick, though I could understand Alves’ speaking voice. The sets were very good, specifically for “The Rumble”.
The dancing was fantastic! The scene for “The Rumble” was very well done, as was “The Prologue” and the songs “The Jet Song”, “Dance at the Gym”, “America”, “Cool”, and “Somewhere”.
The song “Maria” was very well sung by Coe, the last note of the song was jaw dropping due to it being so high. “Tonight” and “One Hand, One Heart” sung by Tony and Maria were sung beautifully by Coe and Grisso, their voices went very well together. Coe in my opinion sounded a little bit like London singer Julian Ovenden, while singing “Tonight”.
Overall it was a great performance, the only two things that were not in my favor was Coe’s speaking voice because it was to quiet. And the other thing is that I spotted a backstage worker during before the song “Somewhere”. Other than those two things the show itself and the actors were amazing. Great job to this cast and crew.
musicalreviewer92 