‘West Side Story’ revival staging is retro cool

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West Side Story national tour. PICTURED: "The Dance at the Gym" with Michelle Aravena as Anita and German Santiago as Bernardo.

Updated: October 27, 2011 12:32AM

It is easy to run down the checklist of “relevance” when watching “West Side Story” — everything from the way it captures ethnic tensions, youthful passion, police tactics and gang violence at school and in the streets, to the contradictory ache for separation and assimilation among immigrant populations. But all that is really quite beside the point when watching and listening to this groundbreaking musical first seen in 1957, and now at Chicago’s Cadillac Palace Theatre in a national touring production based on the 2009 Broadway revival.

For all its relevance, “West Side Story,” directed by David Saint (and modeled after the late Arthur Laurents’ Broadway edition), is now a period piece that no one would mistake for “Rent” or “Spring Awakening,” though neither of those shows would exist without it. Yet period piece or not, it is difficult to imagine a more glorious example of musical theater genius than this one, which comes with a score of absolute brilliance by Leonard Bernstein (a mix of jazz, Latin, opera and pure Broadway); choreography by Jerome Robbins (by way of Joey McKneely’s fabulous “reproduction”) that is far and away more eloquent than any dialogue could ever be; bristling and passionate lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Laurents that gives us Shakespeare fit for the mean streets of 1950s Manhattan. In addition, this revival’s bursts of Spanish in a couple of scenes, and in sections of two or three of the most familiar songs, brings an added bit of authenticity.

Of course “West Side Story” is a tragic, ethnicity-crossing love story centered around Tony (Kyle Harris), the Polish-American guy who has outgrown the Jets, and the Puerto Rican Maria (Ali Ewoldt, who not only brings her soaring voice to the role, but, like Juliet, clearly suggests a gently rebellious as well as romantic spirit).

But above all it is a magnificent jazz ballet. Dance is the real language of this musical, from the opening scene’s tense gathering of the Jets and Sharks (and their trading of insults) to the stunning shift from lindy to mambo in the “Dance at the Gym” (performed superbly here) to the playful “America” (neatly envisioned as a playoff between the joyfully Americanized Anita, exuberantly played by Michelle Aravena, and the homesick “greenhorn” Rosalia (given a fine comic touch by Dea Julien).

True, the Jets look more like suburban high school kids than hardcore New York hoods, but led by Riff (Joseph J. Simeone), they and their girls dance like demons, as do the Sharks and their girls. “Cool” and “Gee, Officer Krupke” (rendered with a bit more lewdness than usual) remain terrific showpieces. The arias between Maria and Tony are beautifully done (though sometimes their dialogue gets swallowed up). Anita and Maria go at each other with great fire in their ferocious rendering of “A Boy Like That.” And “Somewhere,” with its blindingly dreamy white lighting, is wonderfully envisioned and set into motion by Anybodys (played by Alexandra Frohlinger, who deftly suggests a contemporary aura of sexual ambiguity).

The orchestra, conducted by John O’Neill, sounds terrific, with music supervisor Patrick Vaccarriello making some deft tempo choices that give a fresh edge to familiar riffs. James Youmans’ vivid set design (particularly the gym and the highway underpass site for the rumble) is complemented by Howell Binkley’s fine lighting.

Yes, a vintage musical, to be sure. But never a stodgy museum piece.