West Side Story - Royal Exchange, Manchester

Only 16 day seats - back row of the second gallery, no banquettes. The queue was massive this morning, all tickets spoken for by about 8:30 I think, lots of people got turned away.

No, I think they meant 8:30. If there are only, say, 20 seats for sale and 20 people are there by 8:30, then even though the tickets won't be sold for another hour, there's not a huge amount of point queuing up after then (unless you're optimistic about returns or hoping that some of the people queuing are just there for fun and not to buy a ticket). That's why they said "spoken for", not "sold".

The policy has changed because they needed a bigger stage so banquettes have been removed. I think as more people see it (if it is good) the day seat queue will be seeing more people and people queing earlier !

Just spotted a seat available for tonight, so have booked (even though I already have a seat booked for later in the run). One of my favourite musicals of all time.

There are seats appearing, so keep a look out.

Now to sort the train and hotel. Luckily I'm off work this week.

It pays to keep checking the royalexchange.co.uk website as tickets do indeed pop up!

VERY excited - I have just booked a seat for this for next Monday (15th April) evening! It is a very long time since I was at the Royal Exchange, but when I lived "up north" I went regularly and saw some great theatre in this very exciting space.

Really looking forward to this......

posted in wrong section 

I suppose if you take out the ‘bonkettes’ and the legroom that serves them you’re going to be adding a fair bit of area to the stage.

Is the first circle high stools aswell?

I can confirm that the back row seats of the top tier (Gallery 2) aren’t an issue view wise, but lack any sort of comfort in my opinion. I sat up there last year for one show, but asked the FOH if I could move to the stalls as it was very uncomfortable up there. I’d only go up there again if there where no other seats available. 

Whenever I've seen one of my favourites musicals, In The Heights, I always thought it reminded me of West Side Story.

Now, I've seen a production of West Side Story that reminds me of In The Heights. This is, in part, due to the staging, and also because several of the cast were in In The Heights in London.

A full house in previews tonight, with a handful of empty seats right on the end of rows, for some strange reason. A big performance area, little to the set. Two metal structures that are moved about and form balconies, as well as a third metal area that is lowered from the ceiling. The structures did not look easy to climb, Andy Coxon certainly found climbing a metal ladder and singing at the same time difficult, as at all other times he was flawless.

This is staged in the round with new choreography. It's a very modern staging, deliberately positioned as timeless. It would be hard to tell what era the costumes are from and they could very easily be from the streets of New York today.

It is also modern casting. Both the Jets and Sharks contain a variety of ethnicities, which removes all the racial tensions from the piece. The Jets have matching tattoos, the Sharks dress a bit more flamboyantly, but otherwise you have to pay attention to tell them apart.

Other than the two leads, I hadn't seen a cast list, so was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few people I recognised. The standout has to be Jocasta Almgill as Anita, but I fell in love with both the two leads, Gabriela Garcia and Andy Coxon, who both sung beautifully and left me tearful on more than one occasion.

There were a few nods to the original choreography, but otherwise this is modern styled and simpler. The main nod was in the ballet, Somewhere, which now shows no matter what your gender, race or sexuality, you deserve love. Very fitting for Manchester.

There is one person in the audience who should be banned from the theatre forever for laughing when Anita shared news with Maria early in the second half, but otherwise it was a well-behaved audience.

I loved it, but I'm honestly not sure what the audience made of it. I only really caught too audience comments, one finding it funny the tattoos were falling off (which I didn't pick up on at all), the other that it was too expensive for what it was (bear in mind this was a half price preview). I did find myself making up half of the standing ovation, which to me was completely deserved, but maybe Manchester just doesn't do such things.

Quite amusing as well that the musical where Andy Coxon played an excellent Berger in London is touring just down the road in Manchester at the Palace Theatre.

I'd like to think the reviews will be positive. It's both familiar, but different, which will take a bit of getting used to if you're used to the original choreography. It sounds excellent, both the singing and the orchestra. I can't see how you couldn't like it. To me, even based on this preview it's fully deserving of transferring to London, if they can find the right theatre to stage it in. I know not all the audience felt the same way. But please give it a chance. The run is pretty much sold out regardless.

What is the running time? Is there still a gunshot?

I missed that if so.



2 hours 30 minutes officially. Started about 7:33, finished about 9:58, didn't time the interval length but the first half is much longer than the second half.

Yes, usual place. It's a real gunshot, not recorded. Over quickly, obvious when it's coming if you know the show and not too loud.

Another thought as I know it's a trigger for people. Very little smoking in this version, which I guess reflects the current time.