Tonight, Tonight, Won't Be Just Any Night

This is only going to be a short one: I have just finished catching up on the West Side Story Prom, which played at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday (as expected, I was working when it was broadcast on Saturday). With the John Wilson Orchestra, this marks one out of 2 concerts of Bernstein's musicals (the other being On The Town in a couple of week's time) to celebrate his centenary year. 

To be honest, when I was reading the Prom listings, I was perplexed: why was this only getting a radio broadcast while On The Town will also be televised? Why one and not the other? Well, after listening to it, I realise why - the concert element is the key word here, and a semi-staged production like last year's Oklahoma this was not. 

As a concert version, it was stripped right back to the minimal of Arthur Laurent's libretto and mainly went from song to song; which was fine, but you didn't get the story play out in your head as much, as it misses character development, even for characters such as Anita (sung powerfully by Eden Espinosa). It also doesn't help that I was playing catch up through the radio and not seeing it live - if it had gotten a tv broadcast, even that perhaps may have helped...?

Despite the bareness however, musically, it has never sounded better, thanks not only to the John Wilson Orchestra themselves, but also to the hand picked singers who made up the cast, led by Mikaela Bennett (replacing Sierra Boggess who pulled out to give a Hispanic actress a chance) and Ross Lekites as the two lovers Maria and Tony.

If you fancy checking this out, go for it: it's a good concert to chill out too - but don't be expecting a semi staged productions that Wilson has done in the past for the Proms. It will be interesting to see what On The Town brings.