West Side Story - Royal Exchange, Manchester

A bit greedy. I paid £49 which I thought was expensive for the Exchange, although it must be an expensive production to mount. The view from the front row of the first gallery was terrific though.

Mmmmm, difficult to secure the same cast for a year ahead I would have thought, especially for a limited run. The cast was the strongest element of this production for me - especially the leads.

Apparently it is the first time in the history of the Exchange that a production has been brought back in this way.

Saw this on Tuesday. Andy and Gabriela were phenomenal, by far and away the highlights, although the whole cast is very strong. But I'm not a big fan of WSS and unfortunately this wasn't the production to convert me. (Please don't burn me at the stake.)

Ignoring the sight line issues that people have brought up, the staging here didn't do anything for me.

Would be a pretty safe bet that there'll still be plenty of demand next year and it'll still be a hot ticket, even with a new cast. But they'll be hard to match!

I'd hope they'd keep the leads atleast.

Jordan Cunningham defiantly won't be involved, not that he's a lead by any stretch. But he's doing the Priscilla tour and has already said on Instagram he is doing the full tour so he'll be out.

It’s ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me. Great performances apart from one supporting actor who wasn’t up to it vocally, at least at tonight’s performance. The leads are brilliant though. The set was pretty much what I expected, standard minimalist design from the REX as demanded by the unique space.  I couldn’t see how else they could stage this without going upwards because every bit of floor is needed for all that leaping about, and they certainly use it. 
I thought the costumes were pretty clever really. You could choose to see them as 50’s or if you weren’t familiar with the original you could equally see them as more current street fashion. No complaints about the choreography (is this the actual first EVER production to be staged which hasn’t used the original?) but the dancing in the busier more complex numbers wasn't always synchronised which stood out a lot being so close to the audience. 
The orchestra’s soundproof box outside is quite snazzy, it looks like it’s intended to be peered into. Percussion is in a separate smaller box by the cloakroom. Nice touch to bring the orchestra onstage for the curtain call. 

Really enjoyed it. It’s another case of the Cabaret Factor though. Nothing will ever live up to the film. 

Try not to overthink it and just take it as it comes. The world is New York, it’s gangs separated by race and culture, and a classic tale of star crossed lovers. There’s nowt complicated about it! 
Looking forward to hearing what you think as a newbie to the show. 

Forgot to mention that it passed the “filling up” test.
That bit where he says “See only me...” and she sings “only you, you’re the only thing I’ll see. Forever”
On the film soundtrack that gets me. Every. Single. Time, I can actually just think of that bit and get a bit emoshe. No idea why. I’m normally hard as nails 🙂.

I was on the front row of the first gallery and the view is terrific!

Tuesday 30 April 2019 is when public booking opens. Booking is open for members now. This is from the press release!

I saw it over Easter with my mum and loved it, although it was weird to see a version that is so different to the original, and with new choreography! I think my mum struggled with that more than me. 

2nd visit today. Quite a few changes from the early previews. I found it much easier to tell the Jets and Sharks apart, also had the impression some had changed sides, but may be misremembering.

Sold out and quite a queue for returns when I collected my ticket 15 minutes before the show.

New actor playing Doc and Krupke, David Krellin. There were signs up and an announcement made. The way it was presented, it sounded like a permanent change. He was fine.

I ended up on the seat next to the one I had last time. Unfortunately the show wasn’t without incident.

Minor (in comparison) had a father and son next to me, both feasting on some Chinese snacks with an outer bag, then various small inner bags. The father eventually got the message towards the end of Act 1 after a lot of stares.

The son also made a lot of noise as if he was snoring. For a long time, I assumed he really was asleep until he moved. Not sure if either spoke English.

More major, there was a loud crash about 10 minutes before the end of Act 1. An elderly lady ended up collapsed in the aisle (she had fallen off her seat a row or two behind me). She couldn’t get up and, from the conversation I could hear, I don’t think she should feel her legs.

She was helped by the staff, but remained in the aisle throughout the interval. Customers were sent out through other entrances. I was shocked they restarted for the second half with her still on the floor. Paramedics arrived about 15 minutes into the second half to take her out. I hope she is okay.

Another elderly lady had a fall going back to her seat in the interval (while all this was going on). Thankfully, she wasn’t badly hurt.

Obviously there was a lot of noise while this was going on. Talking to the poor lady, radios going off and all the commotion.

I tried to enjoy the rest of the show, but that rather put a damper on things. I’m still shocked they just continued with the show. I appreciate there was an evening performance later but there was plenty of time between shows. Also rather put off by audience members around me making various jokes with the poor lady in earshot (she couldn’t move, but I’m sure she could still hear).

So there you go. Enough excitement for one day.