The students from Marshall Islands High School, Assumption School and the Co-op School have been very busy the past seven weeks rehearsing and preparing for this year’s performance of Leonard Bernstein’s spectacular Broadway musical “West Side Story.” Dances have been choreographed and rehearsed, lines have been learned, songs have been sung, videos have been made, pictures have been taken, scenes have been blocked, the stage has been designed and they are ready to share their hard work with the public.
Through this adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to 1950’s New York, the audience can follow the rivalry of two gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, the ineptitude of the older generation to guide or understand their teenage offspring, and the tragic outcome when a girl from one gang falls in love with a boy from another. The powerful themes of violence in youth and love that is both passionate and uncompromising are examined through Bernstein’s achingly beautiful and dramatic score, Stephen Sondheim’s breathtakingly witty and inventive lyrics, and Arthur Laurent’s idiomatic script.
The production’s director, Professor Andrew Garrod, is very pleased with the Marshall Islands students’ performances, stating that he believes “the students in this production do justice to this great Broadway Musical.”
West Side Story will be performed on March 6, 7, 8, and 9, 2013 at the International Convention Center (ICC) at 8 p.m. each night. Tickets for the community cost $2 for adults and $1 for students.
West Side story will be the latest production in what has become an annual theatrical event in the Marshall Islands organized each year by Professor Garrod and the Dartmouth Volunteer Teaching Program.
