When West Side Story premiered in September of 1957, theater critic Walter Kerr wrote, “The radioactive fallout from ‘West Side Story’ must still be descending on Broadway this morning.”
Today, against a backdrop of midnight arrests and deportation flights, the musical’s portrayal of the immigrant experience promises to be just as explosive. But Gulf Coast Symphony’s production of “West Side Story” this weekend will also remind audiences of the role great theater plays in telling and retelling timeless stories filled with iconic characters and music.
Patrick Murray plays the part of Tony. This is the young actor’s first leading role, and it falls upon him to render one of the most memorable pieces of theater music ever written, “Maria.”
“I get the privilege of singing [Maria],” Murray said during rehearsals on Tuesday. “It is a beautifully and masterfully written song. It is equally as terrifying as it is gratifying. It is a song I’ve known for my entire life, since I was a little boy, since I knew that I wanted to do musical theater and I don’t think that I ever thought that I would have the chance to do this and make it my own.”
Michel Vasquez is Maria. The word “is” has been used because she’s lived with the character for quite some time, which enables her to deliver a truly authentic experience both as a singer and an actor.
“I have had a lot of time with this character,” Vasquez confirmed. “I’ve been able to understudy this role in the past and I’ve been able to watch from a lot of different people’s portrayals of this character, and this is the first time I really get to make it my own, and I think it’s really special because I both pull from other people and other moments that I’ve seen, and also experience it for the first time with Danii and Patrick and Alex on stage.”
Like Maria, Anita is new to America. Daniella Castoria, who portrays Anita, gives voice to her character’s experience in coming to America.
“She loves everything about being able to come to America and start a new life here,” Castoria observed. “All of her dreams are coming true in America, everything that she wanted. She has her boy friend Bernardo. She has Maria, who’s like her little sister. She’s starting to bring over as much of her family as she can, and really just the opportunity to start fresh. America for her is like a brand-new start, and she loves it.”
There are just two performances of this American classic at the BB Mann, Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 7 p.m.
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Michel Vasquez plays the part of Maria. She’s exceptional in the role.
“It’s a dream,” says Vasquez of the opportunity to play the part of Maria. “It’s very special to play a role that’s been around for so long, but also to play a role that has an incredible character arc in this story. Even though the story spans a total of two days, Maria starts as this really excited, enthusiastic young girl who’s like 16. She’s been in America for just one month and she goes to a dance and immediately falls in love with Tony, and the rest of the story is her grappling with her love for him against all odds.”
By the end of the story, Maria has gone from the heights of first love to the depths of great tragedy.
“It’s really a challenge to play a character that has such a big arc, of being so young and excited for what’s to come, and naïve in a way, and then by the end she has gone through so much and experienced so many emotions and she really has a resilience to her by the end of the play that you wouldn’t see coming at the beginning without knowing the story.”
Vasquez appreciates that Maria was written as a strong female Latina character. But she’s even more grateful that the role contemplated a soprano like her.
“Maria was like the first role that I went, ‘Omigosh, I could play that.’ Like, she is my voice type. There’s a lot of roles for Latinas that are like your fiery Anitas, which are so incredible, but there’s kind of a lack of the soprano girls, so I think that is very special, and it’s such a timeless piece and it’s done over and over throughout the generations so I feel there will always be a place for that character and for voices like mine.”
She can hardly wait to step onto the Barbara B. Mann stage and portray a character that’s so dear to her heart.
“There’s something very special when you get to step into a role like,” said Vasquez. “It locks into a place in your heart that you can’t even describe until you’re on that stage and you’re feeling the emotions and you’re feeling these things, and this is right and this is where I belong. I’m meant to tell this story.”
Patrick Murray is Tony. This is Murray’s first time in a lead role.
“To get to step into this iconic piece of musical theater in a role that is so iconic has been really special.”
He credits Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim with making this undertaking a painless, positive experience.
“Ultimately what I found is that in a musical that has been written so perfectly, the book and the music, it makes my job easier as the actor to be able to have material that is so transcendent.”
Murray’s character is a young man caught between two cultures.
“I think that it is interesting that this show was written more than 60 years ago [68 to be exact] and that all of the themes of the show are still extremely pertinent and extremely relevant, especially in Florida where maybe people are more divided than other parts of the country. That they can come and see that play out on stage and see the truths that still exist in our society today will hopefully give them new perspective and the ability to learn something from what we’re showing them on stage. Ultimately, this is a show with a lot of really dark themes, but at the core, it’s about love and hope and facing adversity.”
Vasquez and Murray show quite a bit of chemistry on stage. They did know each other before taking on their roles in “West Side Story,” but they’ve worked exceedingly closely over the two weeks the show has been in rehearsal.
“In a rehearsal process like this, you find yourself becoming close to someone easily, and when you’re two people who are pretty good people, I don’t think it’s hard to find chemistry between each other.”
Daniella Castoria plays the part of Anita.
“Anita is this fiery, fun, ball of energy,” says Castoria of her character. “She is your true triple threat.
To prepare for the role, Castoria spent a great deal of time studying the script, took vocal lessons, did physical training designed to increase and sustain the stamina needed for the role and drew upon her previous experience in working with “West Side Story” Director and Choreographer Amy Marie McCleary. [She previously play Deanna Morales in “A Chorus Line” for McCleary.]
“So I knew what I was in for with Miss Amy McCleary choreography,” Castoria said, laughing. “But the whole show is based off of Jerome Robbins choreography, and we have a little splash of Amy McCleary in there. So I knew I that I was going to be dancing hard. I knew that I needed to be ready to take it on, so I definitely spent a few weeks just preparing.”
Regarding the choreography, Castoria readily acknowledges that the dance numbers and fight routines are a level above what she’s experienced in other shows.
“Being able to execute such complex choreography comes down to how you’re being taught the choreography,” Castoria observed. “And we’re so blessed to have Amy as our choreographer. We started Day 1 learning ‘America’ and by Day 2, we were done learning the dance, the entire number. And being able to start with that, and just now cleaning throughout has changed how I approach the number because it’s already in my body. Now I can have fun and add the flare and Anita-isms to her.”
This approach has made portraying the role a rich and rewarding experience.
“It’s been so great to create and really feel her choreography in my body,” Castoria added. “All of the greats that get to play Anita, from Rita Moreno to Chita Rivera to Debbie Allen and Karen Olivo [the first and only actor to win a Tony Award for a performance in “West Side Story”], they all have made her their own, and to find how they created such an iconic role and made it their own on their body, that’s what I had to do to honor her because she is a legend of a human.”
Castora confesses to being a smidge intimidated when she was first cast in the role.
“I’m not going to lie. I was definitely scared a little bit,” Castoria admitted. “But scared in the best way because I think being scared means I care and I knew it was going to be a lot of hard work, but I ultimately knew this was something I wanted to do and wanted to do with the direction of Amy McCleary.”
Audiences will particularly appreciate Castoria’s portrayal of the arc that the character of Anita traverses, especially from the euphoria and idealism she exhibits in Act One to the sense of despair and betrayal she undergoes in Act Two.
I think audiences will appreciate how raw and honest Anita is. She’s so sarcastic and fun, but you really see a different side of her from Act One to Act Two. Act One, you’re going to see all of the fun and that dream of coming from Puerto Rico to America, and in Act Two, you start to see what happens when things unravel … when she discovers that maybe America isn’t what she thought it was and you start to see what that does to her as a human and how she deals with the things around her. And I think that’s its really incredible to watch how much of a depth and how deep she has to go, but at the end of the day, even being in America, one thing that stays true is that all these things happen around her, even by the end, she doesn’t say she wants to go back. She still wants to stay in America. So I think that that’s something the audiences are going to be interested in, seeing how all of that comes full circle.
The role of Anita and her character’s journey are especially meaningful to Castoria.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
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To read more stories about the arts in Southwest Florida visit Tom Hall's website: SWFL Art in the News.