2001 was an eventful, unusual, and transitional summer for the Pontiac theatre program, mostly due to the controversy surrounding Jesus Christ Superstar. West Side Story was supposed to be the second/middle camp show, but when the directors decided that it would be better to do Superstar after Visiting Day, rather than at the beginning of camp, and do it with staff instead of campers, West Side Story moved up to first, with both middle and upper camp eligible to audition. Obviously, I wasn't thrilled with the idea (see the Jesus Christ Superstar page for more about this), but this was how it had to be, so we went ahead..

This was the first show we did that wasn't my idea; I had never been fond of this show and I particularly dislike its source of inspiration, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (which, as an English teacher, I have taught several times, and which bothers me because, in addition to being atypical of Shakespearean tragedy, and not one of the Bard's better works, it is so frequently and so badly misinterpreted that its true meaning has been almost entirely lost to history). But one group of boys did a medley of West Side Story songs for "Puttin' on the Hits" in 2000, leading one of the directors to ask me to put it on the following summer.

The problems with West Side Story were many. For one, the music is very difficult to play and sing and requires exceptional vocal range, particularly for its two leads; as with most of the older, "standard" Broadway musicals, the commercially-available sheet music contains only a fraction of the score, requiring a great deal of learning by ear. The original show is very dance-heavy (conceived by Jerome Robbins) and there is just not enough time, let alone talent, to do that much of that sort of choreography in a camp show. It's a very depressing story with a tragic, downer ending (lacking the optimistic epilogue of Shakespeare's), not to mention gang violence and overtly racist overtones. I only point these out here because none of this seemed to bother anyone, while other proposed shows have been rejected on similar, and often much less substantial, grounds.

Of course, as has always been the case, the problems were more than possible to overcome. Some of the music could be transposed and simplified, the racial aspects could be de-emphasized, and we'd do what we could with the choreography. Joining us this summer was Lori Thompson, from Kansas, the first college-aged counselor to work with me in the theatre, who brought a great deal of enthusiasm and creativity to the program.

Auditions for this show were for inters and up. With his counterpart Marc Asnis gone, Dan Vesey, now a senior, decided not to try out. Fortunately, we had a talented group of inter, junior and subbie boys and girls try out for this show, including several who'd had roles before, though we did have one senior, A.J. Strasser, who was cast as Bernardo. A.J.'s dad, the "camp dad," Alan, signed on as Glad Hand, the hapless emcee of the dance where Tony and Maria meet, reviving the tradition of adult-staff cameos after a one-summer hiatus.

For the role of Tony, I really wanted to cast Josh Mogil, who had been in several shows and had always shown tremendous effort, dedication and enthusiasm for the theatre program but had never had a featured role. He had even offered to give up his lines in Beauty and the Beast two years earlier to another camper who didn't have any. He had a very good audition and I felt confident casting him, and needless to say I was very pleased with his performance. Lori and I also felt that Michael Virga, another extremely dedicated and talented young man, was better suited here to the supporting role of Riff, the Jets' leader. Josh's brother Eric, who had a great audition and had really become an excellent singer, fit right into the role of Action and got to sing one of the best numbers in the show, "Hey, Officer Krupke." Rounding out the male cast were the always-reliable Corey Elan, back for his fifth show; Perry Livingston, whose voice had also matured nicely; Brandon Dinetz, who had been so impressive as a sophomore the year before; and newcomer Richard Neumann, who very effectively played the thankless role of the aforementioned city cop (as we had done in the 1985 Camp Natchez production, I combined the roles of Schrank and Krupke into one for this adaptation).

Another newcomer to camp, junior Alyssa Fleisher, had such an amazing audition that we cast her as Maria. She had an incredible voice and unfortunately joined the ever-growing pantheon of lead performers who only came to camp for one year. Lori Davidson, who was now an inter and had somehow not been cast in a singing role since The Lion King, was cast as Anita, although some of the character's songs were cut for the adaptation. As with Damn Yankees, H.M.S. Pinafore and Joseph, some of the girls who auditioned were cast in male ensemble roles, including Valerie Schwartz and Courtney LaCroix, both very talented and energetic performers. Veterans Michelle Kremer and Rachel Greenfader were cast as Maria's friends Consuelo and Rosalia, along with Cara Cohen and Allison Kobren who would go on to roles in future shows.

Costuming for this show was fairly easy and provided a way to visually distinguish the Jets and the Sharks. We had the Jets in green (for obvious reasons) and the Sharks in blue; the color combinations really worked well in front of the brick-red backdrop. The right-hand side of the upstage platform, which had been left in place after Beauty and the Beast and used to great effect in all three 2000 shows, was for 2001 replaced by an enclosure with a door, opening up even more possibilities for set design. I painted the door with the number "704 W" above it, the number being an homage to Archie Bunker's fictional address on "All in the Family" (704 Hauser Street in Astoria, Queens, which itself ignored the real-life format for Queens street addresses), even going so far as to include the four window panes with the American-flag decal on one, to resemble the Bunkers' door from the TV show. The "W," of course, was there to indicate that the story took place on the west side (of Manhattan, that is).

I remember on this show we did something that we had never done before and have never done since: videotaping a run-through the day before the show and then watching it the next day. I don't know why I've never done this since, although the fact that we're rarely able to get the whole cast together prior to the date of the show, let alone ready to do a run-through, may have something to do with it.

West Side Story turned out to be a very good show, thanks to the enormously talented and dedicated cast. As with Tommy the year before, we all had a great time working together.

_____