Posted: 8/11/18 at 8:22am
Just caught yesterday’s matinee at the Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, MA. Was in town for a wedding and wanted to catch this since I had never seen the show on stage or the new Barrington Stage Company theatre. I was not disappointed in either.
This show was wonderful. Will Branner and Addie Morales as Tony and Maria were perfect. Their chemistry together could not be bought (unlike the totally lack of chemistry between Satine and Christian in the over produced Moulin Rouge). They just have it and you can see it in their first moments on stage. Will Branner’s Tony is so effortless. His voice is amazing and he lives every moment. Addie Morales portrays innocent the moment you see her and it works perfectly which is heartbreaking since you already know the outcome. They take you on a wonderful and heart wrenching journey. They clearly are the stars of this production.
The rest of the cast is appropriately cast with fine singers and dancers. Some notable standouts include Juan Caballer as Action and Kyle Coffman as A-Rab. Skyler Volpe really comes out strong and exciting as Anita in the first act but unfortunately, I felt she weakened in the second act. She was still wonderful but seemed to lack the energy of the first act.
The Jets were all great in their roles and in recreating Jerome Robbins original choreography. The Jets women were also fantastic dancers which left me feeling disappointed durin the “America” number because I was hoping the Shark’s women would reach the same heights.
The set design and lighting design is really suburb especially when the windows are lit up all around the stage.
If you happened to be in the Berkshires I highly recommend catching this show. I specifically came to the Berkshires years ago to see “Follies” at the old high school theatre where BSC used to perform (and luckily for us, Stephen Sondheim was in attendance at our performance with Mia Farrow) but I haven’t been back since. However, after seeing this production I am sure that I will be venturing back to BSC in the future to see more production since their production values and talent is so superb.
