Music, dream keep ‘West Side Story’ relevant

The times they have a-changed.

In some ways, that is. In others, “West Side Story” seems as topical, and as timeless, as ever.

The current touring production — at The Smith Center’s Reynolds Hall through Sunday — retains the 1957 original’s setting, recalling a time when gang members called each other “Buddy boy” and “Daddy-o.”

Their weapons of choice were switchblades and zip guns, but their victims still wound up just as dead as they do in this era of assault rifles and drive-by shootings.

Most importantly, the things that really count in “West Side Story” — the propulsive Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim score and Jerome Robbins’ dynamic dances — retain their depth and impact.

Yet this production, stirring and entertaining though it may be, emerges as a bit less than a knockout.

Granted, any stage version of “West Side Story” must compete with our collective memory of the Oscar-winning 1961 movie adaptation, which switched around a few musical numbers — and cemented more than a few things.

Including a kinder, gentler conception of the story’s resident Romeo, a reluctant gang member metamorphosed by love — for the right person, from the wrong “family.”

If all that sounds familiar, it should; writer Arthur Laurents (who directed the 2009 Broadway revival that inspired this touring version) and collaborators based “West Side Story” on Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” transforming the feuding families of Renaissance-era Verona into rival New York street gangs.

The Jets consider themselves the true Americans, despite the fact that they’re only a generation or two removed from immigrant status themselves. And the Sharks, natives of Puerto Rico, are migrants, not immigrants, because — as one of Sondheim’s most pointed lyrics points out — “nobody knows in America, Puerto Rico’s in America.”

Their inevitable clash dooms the tender romance between Jets co-founder Tony (an earnest, ardent Addison Reid Coe) and Maria (delicate yet determined MaryJoanna Grisso ), sister of the Sharks’ leader, Bernardo (the forceful Andres Acosta) — and surrogate sister of his even more tempestuous girlfriend, Anita (fierce, fiery Michelle Alves ).

This “West Side Story” aims for a grittier, mean-streets feel — and generally hits the mark. James Youmans’ sets and Howell Binkley’s shadowy, Tony-nominated lighting quietly aid the cause.

In addition, the Sharks speak — and sometimes sing in — Spanish. (Tony-winning “In the Heights” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda provided the translations.)

And while the dual-language approach may heighten the realism, it sometimes undercuts the show’s “we’re all the same under the skin” message — especially in the gripping rumble showdown “Quintet,” when the Jets and Sharks trade “Well, they began it!” accusations while Tony and Maria sing, rapturously, of their newfound love.

Director David Saint (Laurents’ assistant on the 2009 production — and the executor of Laurents’ estate) and “reproduction choreographer” Joey McKneely (who danced for Robbins in “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway”) clearly know the territory.

Wisely, they keep the focus where it belongs: on those legendary musical numbers, from the vibrantly electrifying “Dance at the Gym” to “Somewhere’s” poignant dream ballet, in which both fighting factions imagine “we’ll find a new way of living, we’ll find a way of forgiving  ... ”

More than 50 years later, we’re still waiting for that dream to come true. But this “West Side Story” provides a timely, and timeless, reminder of its power.

Contact reporter Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.