Sometime in the 1940s, it occurred to choreographer Jerome Robbins that an updated musical version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet could be a good idea. He pitched it to composer Leonard Bernstein and librettist Arthur Laurents, and when they actually got to work on it, in the mid-1950s, Laurents brought in a 25-year-old with a talent for lyrics, Stephen Sondheim.
The current Lyric coproduction with Houston Grand Opera and the Glimmerglass Festival retains Robbins’s original choreography, reproduced by Julio Monge. It opens with the now-iconic whistle and finger-snapping prelude that introduces the two gangs as they chase and confront each other on a gritty city street—a foretaste of the explosive combat choreography that’s one of the show’s principal glories. The gangs are led by Bernardo, Maria’s older brother (elegantly played by Manuel Stark Santos), and Riff (Brett Thiele), Tony’s best friend. It’s Riff who explains the virtues of gang life (“From your first cigarette/To your last dyin’ day”) in an opening earworm of a song, and then convinces former chief Jet Tony (Corey Cott) to join the gang at a dance that evening. Tony, already sensing that “Something’s Coming,” meets Maria at the dance, setting the wheels in motion for the rumble that’ll end with the deaths of both gang leaders. It’s a poetically compressed plot (timeline: two days), richly expanded by the diverse music of its composer/lyricist dream team, from the brilliant satire of “Gee, Officer Krupke” to the sublime duet, “A Boy Like That/I Have a Love,” sung by Maria and Anita, Bernardo’s girlfriend. Which brings us to two compelling performances.
Through 6/2: Wed 1:30 and 7 PM, Thu-Fri 7 PM, Sat 1:30 and 7 PM, Sun 1:30 PM; also Thu 5/16, 1:30 PM; no performances Tue 5/6-Thu 5/9, Wed 5/15, 7 PM, or Fri 5/31; Lyric Opera, 20 N. Wacker, 312-827-5600, lyricopera.org, $29-$219.
