Page 78 - ThePhoenix1989-90

I Page 101 Western Maryland College! Mareh 15,1990 Supporting Cast Carries West Side by Mary Bascboff at the end of the first act, and the with the supporting cast The even better by Donald Frantum as acting and upstaging by Karen WMCTheatre'spelfonnance rumble. dancing was generally too stiff, Action. Snyder). of West Silk Story sold out three Although the closing of the with the exception of dance cap- The three secondary lead As far as the lead characters of the six shows. play was very effective. Tooy's tain Wendy Mitchell, who per- characters basically stole the of1heplay, Tonyand Maria, were This is representative of the shooting left a lot 10 be desired. formed extremely well. show. concerned, they were the reason quality of the show. which was The use of fake blood and This was unfortunate, how- Matt Bayley, with his strong that the show was only half good. about one-half good. cap gun sound effect made the ever, for the rest of the dancers, voice and relaxed acting style, Scott Behrens was a very disap- Let's stan from the begin- audience laugh at a time when who were completely overshad- created a great portrayal of Riff, pointing Tony. ning. Thehocsehgbtsdim. Some quiet drama should have taken owed, butwbodidagoodjobwith and the rapport he produced with Although his voice was cap- audience members experience place. their background acting. Bemardowasintriguingtowatch. tivating, it was too opera-like, and d~ja vu as they view the set, The pit orchestra, under di- Severalsmallpartsimheplay ROckReiserandMichelaPat- he dido 't keep with the orchestra; It was about ninety percent rection of Dr. Margaret Bou- deserve mention. Chris Covell terson were the best pan of the he often sang too fast of the old Hairy Ape set. dreaux, did a remarkable job added a splash of humor as Glad show as Bernardo and Anita, His acting was at best medi- Is Ira Domser getting lazy,or (notably the xylophonist), with Hand, as did Scott Grocki as combiningtomakeapotentchem- ocre; he added no animation to the is he into recycling? one exception. Theywerefartoo Officer Krupke. istry. character whatsoever. It doesn't matter, however. loud. I wished that Frank Kratovil Reiser's accent, however. Crystal Fox was utterly tire- because the set was entirely ap- Their "background" music would have made more appear- was slightly overdone-and not some as Maria. Her singing was propriate, and the phannacy and often drowned out the actors, ances.as he did a wonderful job as very Puerto Rican. Patterson's superb, but like Behrens', it was bedroom movable pieces were several of whom could have used the police chief. acting, as usual, was sensational, far too opera-like. splendid. microphones, especially in the Britt Martin was outstanding especially during "America" Her accent was pathetically The "feeling" of the set (due group version of "Tonight" as Doc, and the already-exciting (which was, unfortunately, dis- artificial and overdone, and it to coloring, lighting, etc.) defi- Speaking of actors. let's start "Gee, Officer Krupke" was made turbed greatly by excessive over- made her words very difficult to nitelyhadtheprofessionalDomser understand. touch. "1 Feel Pretty" was under- The first scene was very im- acted and impassionate in a scene pressive; it contained well-di- which was intended to be a de- rected entrances and exits com- light bined with excellent choreogra- The lack of chemistry be- phy (by Billy Burke) to produce a tween Tony and Maria was per- dramatic opening scene. haps the show's biggest flaw. Director Dr. Ron Miller cer- They sang with each other, never tainly caught the audience's at- to each other. tention, and he genera1ly (with "Tonight," potentially the the exception of occasional slow mostromanticnumberin the pro- pacing) kept it throughout the duction, was dragged out and pas- show. sionless. There simply was no Several scenes in the play magic between them. were directed and choreographed The mimed picnic scene particularly well. should have been totally elimi- Thetwomostexcitingscenes nated. and Maria should havesung were" America" and "Gee.Dffi- "Somewhere" to Tony instead. cer Krupke". Both were well- In sum, the play was defi- performed and lots of fun. nitely worth seeing, if only to Also impressive were the enjoy the secondary and support- "Dance at the Gym" nwnber, the ing cast. group performance of "Tonight" West Side Wins Audience by Lee Spector ground of a smoke-filled alley. I enjoyed" how Crystal singing, on the other band, was Like That/I HaveaLove" was one ~ Every version of West Side We then see a montage of brought 10 the stage the naivete good. of the musical highlights. Anita's Story is different fightsbetween thetworivalstreet and innocence of a foreign girl In"IFeel Pretty," Icould feel rage and her love for Maria carne There was no exception in gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. who merely sought happiness. her love for Tony and her excite- through as her singing brought the interpretation done at West- These were uneventful at first, The two were a believable ment about her upcoming mar- tears to my eyes. ern MaryiandCollege of the Jer- but once the action began they be- couple, as we saw to the very end riage. Her credibility was also Rock Reiser, interpreting orne Robbinssaga of forbidden came more interesting. how Tony wasdetennioed tohave enhanced by the backgroundfrom Bernardo, was quite good as the love and violence. J enjoyed the acting as a a life with Maria. But as much as the Shark women. loving brother of Maria and the Itis difficult to compare this whole. The leads and the support- she wanted it, also, "loving just Michela Patterson played lover of Anita. performance to those of other ing characters were convincing, wasn't enough." Anita; she gave an extraordinary Asa gang leader, however, I schools or to the 1%5 film ver- even with the accents they had to However, I had a hard time performance. She was the most had a little trouble believing his sion. ThisisnottosaythatWMC's learn. with Scott Behrens' singing. His pleasing, both as an actress and as tougb guy image. version was poor; it was just dif- Iwas pleased with the legiti- quality was phenomenal. but he a singer. Riff, played by Matt Bayley, ficult not to want to compare it to macy that the actors portrayed by bad very little passion. Her portrayal as a lover and was not convincing either. His some other version of the musi- getting tans, dying their hair, and For instance; in the song confidante was wonderful. She acting was passionless and his cal. learning to speak Spanish. "Maria," you would never have moved around the stage in a way singing was average. The play opens wonderfully The leading roles of Tony known that Tony was a man in that made the Shark men, and the Ialso had difficulty with the as the audience hears the Jet and Maria were played by Scott love. audience, worship her. majority of the Jet scenes. "Jet whistJe-call faintly in the beck- Behrens and Crystal Fox. ThemajorityofCrystalFox's Anita and Maria's "A Boy Continued OD page 8