5 out of 5 Stars

Great question: Do we need yet another version of West Side Story? Full disclosure – West Side Story is, in my opinion, the greatest Broadway musicals of all time – so if this were a middle school production performed in semaphore, my answer would probably be a resounding yes. But let’s go on.

This production is directed by Ivo van Hove, which to me simply means theater completely reinvented. In my opinion, his reimagination (as we saw in his Tony award-winning direction of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge and also The Crucible) represents complete genius. However having recently seen a note for note, dance step for dance step production of West Side Story by the Lyric Opera Company in Chicago that pinned the needles of satisfaction, I had concern regarding the very idea of a reinterpretation.