West Side Story concert at the Kennedy Center

I'll be there Friday night. I have a great seat in the 1st tier.

It's only sung, isn't it - no dancing? I know Joel Perez is singing Bernardo, for some strange reason, as Perez is a terrific singer (I don't think he dances) and Bernardo has no real singing to do (even if they do the movie version of "America," there's little vocal work for Bernardo).

Saw the performance tonight and this week of Chess plus West Side Story is making me love D.C.-- I really hope they continue this trajectory of getting more and more in concert / semi staged productions with such incredible talent.

Already was a Corey fan so was looking forward to seeing him perform as Tony. I took an 11 year old with me, her first exposure to musical theater and she absolutely loved Corey (I did not bias her haha, I asked her at the end who her favorite was and she said she wished he was on stage the whole time). He had the longest applause of tonight (Friday night), America also seemed to be a favorite (for good reason)

Joel, as people previously commented and suspected, was a pivotal character but no singing and limited dialogue.

A couple things I'll note:

1. Everyone was off book. Yes I realize this is an iconic musical and I know the words myself but was a contrast to Chess, which was touted as staged and given I saw that two days ago, kind of hard not to compare. And they incorporated dialogue to keep the flow.

2. There was definitely dancing and movement for the entire show, and dancing for America and Cool, which was great and definitely those are songs that really need it.

3. They did a great job utilizing the stage and the way the concert hall is set up at the Kennedy center. There was a small set for Chess, if I can call it that but there was not one for West side story they use the aisles a couple times too

4. Balance was a little off (orchestra seemed louder for Jet song (songs below) but seemed to be okay for the remainder of the show. I did feel like there were times it wasn't balanced well

--

Order of show:

• prologue
• Jet song
• Something's coming
• The dance at the gym (promenade, mambo, Cha-cha, meeting scene, jump)
• Maria
• balcony scene
• America
• Cool
• One hand, one heart
• Tonight
• The Rumble
• I feel pretty
• Ballet sequence (scherzo, somewhere)
• Gee, Officer Krupke
• A boy like that and I have a love
• Taunting scene
• Finale

Okay, that's all well and good, but the REAL question is...how was my friend on the xylophone?!?!?!

Actually, my friend played more percussion than just the xylophone, but I'm just thrilled he got the gig (and mostly excited about the xylophone because I've always wanted to play that part). We were percussionists together in high school and he's a really great guy. He was formerly with the Honolulu Symphony and now performs with the San Antonio Symphony.

YAY! Of course, some of the credit has to go to Bernstein and his enthusiastic use of percussion in his compositions, but YAY!

I was fortunate to be able to go on Saturday night, and wow, it was an all-around fabulous production! I used to be a classical musician, so it's always a treat for me to see performances like this with a full orchestra. But like @MCfan2 said, Corey Cott's "Maria" was, without exaggeration, the single most beautiful thing I've probably ever experienced.

Melanie73 said: "I was fortunate to be able to go on Saturday night, and wow, it was an all-around fabulous production! I used to be a classical musician, so it's always a treat for me to see performances like this with a full orchestra. But like @MCfan2 said, Corey Cott's "Maria" was, without exaggeration, the single most beautiful thing I've probably ever experienced."

Oh man....everyone's reviews are making me so jealous. Like I said, the snippet he put on social media was really good. Thanks for reporting back, everyone!