A West Side Story

by David Hunt

Oh for the good old days, when interracial romance was shocking and kids didn’t have video games to sublimate their violent tendencies. Life had a hard edge back in 1956 in New York City. And, thanks to the musical drama "West Side Story," we can enjoy it from a safe distance in the comfort of the Redondo high auditorium.

West Side Story has just about everything you could ask for in a play — action, conflict, romance, dancing and, of course, lyrics by Stephen Sonheim and music by Leonard Bernstein. It’s a bit ambitious for a high school drama department, but Redondo pulls it off with energy and polish.

Redondo’s choir and drama director, Debra Johns-Attridge, decided to present West Side Story this year to take advantage of the school’s crop of talented and soon-to-graduate seniors. This is the same group that brought you "Guys N’ Dolls," "South Pacific," "Twelfth Night," "Hello Dolly!" and "The Crucible."

If you missed any of those, you owe it to yourself to see "West Side Story." Plus, it would be a nice graduation present from the community to fill up that big auditorium and cheer these students for four years of hard work and quality entertainment. After all, they could have been running the streets, getting into rumbles instead of studying.

I hate to play favorites, but this production of "West Side Story" should be called "The Chole Corcovelos Show." Corcovelos is remarkable in the lead role of Maria, the Puerto Rican girl who falls in love with Tony, an Anglo guy. She plays the romantic scenes with youthful exuberance and playful energy. In the final tragic scene, the energy turns raw, as flashes of rage and frustration are mingled with unspeakable grief.

Corcovelos lights up the stage in this production, with a superb singing voice, easy stage manner and natural grace.

Of course it takes more than one great performer to put on "West Side Story" and RUHS is lucky to have a strong cast of lead players, including Lisa Cirincione (Anita), John Fox (Tony), Gary Hagins (Riff), Garren Bell (Bernardo) and Jolene Purdy (Rosalia).

The singing is first rate in this production, with Purdy giving a lovely performance of "Tonight" and Cirincione leading a rousing rendition of "America." The Jets perform a goofy, fun-loving number called, "Gee Officer Krupke."

To round out a huge cast of street thugs, Johns-Attridge recruited dozens of students who had never been on stage before, including members of the school’s football team, surf team, wrestling team, track team, dance club, ecology club and student government. I’m not sure how, but the director managed to put together some tightly choreographed song and dance numbers with these kids.

Lighting, sets and costumes were terrific, as usual, but the sound system gave the cast a lot of trouble, especially in the first act. Note to the school board: I don’t care what else you do with all that bond money, but please buy some new wireless mics for the drama department.