I sat B10 (which is front row) orchestra left, and I did miss quite a bit of One Hand One Heart, but I missed a lot of stuff in general that happened upstage so not sure what the view from row J would be. It's definitely a pick your poison kind of situation, and I don't think the orchestra was raked very much though I could be wrong.
But about the production… I'm definitely in the camp of thinking this was amazing. I agree for the most part with Play Esq. I wasn't a super big fan of the traditional show (though granted I've only seen a repertory production and a college production, and I've never seen the movie) because it seemed too elegant? despite the undertones of the message that it seemed to be trying to get across, which I think had a lot to do with the Jerome Robbins choreography. If you liked how the Daniel Fish Oklahoma peeled back the layers to really show the grittiness of the show, I think you'd like this as well. It seems much more rooted in the real world with more authenticity in the anger of the two gangs and the violence between them. The choreography only adds to it, and while I feel like it did deviate from the storytelling in some parts (Cool in particular, though I felt that a bit about the original choreography too), I thought it was a fantastic update to what we’d see today.
The two leads do have incredible chemistry, and when Isaac Powell sang Maria, I really did believe that he had fallen in love with her at a glance. I really enjoyed the way he played Tony (though I’m assuming van Hove had a hand in that too) since former Tonys I’ve seen have been more of pacifists that are pushed into an act of violence, whereas Isaac has that cockiness of a gang member and just seems rougher around the edges to really remind you that he’s still in a street gang facing enormous discrimination. I’d say at this point it’s definitely his Tony (ha!) to lose.
I rather liked Yesenia Ayala as Anita as well, and while she didn’t steal the show like in other productions, I think her scenes really seemed more grounded in authenticity as well (which is a common thread throughout this whole production), and I almost felt that she had a bit more agency in the way that she was portrayed. I definitely second JBroadway and others who have said there’s never the actual act of rape but it’s obvious that’s the direction it’s headed (though I could only see it through the video screen as well so it may be different seeing the actual action).
The projections were rather hit or miss for me. They had some really beautiful shots, like an aerial view of the gym, and some superimposed images. But I think they could’ve really worked with turning the projector off for some scenes where there was just a pointless scrolling background or in A Boy Like That where it was just distracting. And the scenes where it would display the same characters we see in front of us doing something completely different just seemed jarring and unnecessary.
Long post, but all this to say that I really loved the direction this went, and I think it’s very timely and true to its story. I didn’t miss any of the cuts and don’t really see a way they could be added in (maybe Maria singing a verse of I Feel Pretty to herself without the orchestra before Chino comes to give her the news?). It’s definitely in great shape, and while I’m sure they’ll be changing some things, I could see this opening next week and still do extremely well.
Also, there’s A LOT of rain. More than I expected. No splash zone, thankfully since the stage does a good job of catching it all, but wow is there a lot of water in this theater (I was almost surprised that it wasn’t raining outside when I walked out).
