West Side Story

West Side Story is my Mum's favourite show so not having been able to make it to the Sadler's Wells production last summer, I booked tickets for us for the tour for her birthday, several months ago now.

It's a show I've known since I was tiny but never really appreciated until recently, and I'd never seen a professional production before.

I felt almost completely let down. There was huge potential to maximise the impact of the incredible original choreography but the dancing was actually far from tight (the men especially) and really let it down. I didn't really warm to either Maria or (especially) Tony and they seemed thoroughly mismatched, both in appearance and vocally.

All that said, there were exceptions that made it worthwhile... the dream sequence was beautiful and the dancing during that was (excuse the pun) leaps and bounds ahead of the rest. Bernardo and Anita were fabulous. Jayde Westaby was just incredible and utterly outshone everyone else on that stage - America was another of the dance numbers that actually came together really well.

Maybe it was just that they're nearing the end of the tour and the complacency has set in. Maybe it was just never that strong to start with. But the show just struck me as a wasted opportunity.