BalletMet, CAPA, Columbus Symphony, and Opera Columbus – West Side Story
Ohio Theatre
Columbus, Ohio
February 13-16, 2025

By Steve Sucato

Columbus, Ohio, is home to an unusually collaborative performing arts community. The city’s major arts organizations, including its professional symphony, opera company, and ballet company, frequently join together to create magical productions for area audiences. It’s a level of participation that most cities its size don’t come close to.

The most recent of these co-productions, and the most ambitious in recent memory, was a thrilling version of the musical West Side Story that ran February 13-16 at downtown Columbus’ Ohio Theatre. It pooled the talents and resources of BalletMet, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Opera Columbus, and the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA).

If Broadway is the benchmark for world-class musical theater in the United States, Columbus’ regional production of West Side Story was on the cusp of that level of greatness. Skillful performances by several of the cast’s lead performers and BalletMet’s dancers, combined with BalletMet Artistic Director Remi Wortmeyer’s brilliant Jerome Robbins-inspired choreography and the exemplary playing of Leonard Bernstein’s iconic original score by the Columbus Symphony, directed by Music Director Rossen Milanov, resulted in a one-for-the-ages theatrical experience.

The joint production, performed at a nearly sold-out Ohio Theatre on February 15, was a faithful interpretation of the original 1957 musical with conception by Robbins, book by Arthur Laurents, and music by Bernstein with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.  

With sets and production elements designed for and created by the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Opera, and Ballet Theater, the musical resembled 1950s inner-city New York, complete with bleak tenement building facades and dirty streets. 

The two-act, 20th-century version of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet followed the very familiar and tragic story of young lovers Tony and Maria and their forbidden love in a world of racial prejudice and gang violence. Its cast was a blending of Opera Columbus actors/singers, BalletMet dancers, and guest performers brought in by Opera Columbus for several of the lead roles. They included West Side Story International Tour cast member Jadon Webster as Tony and acclaimed opera singer Cecilia Violetta López as Maria. Both performers were capable actors and phenomenal singers, as was Jerusha Cavazos as Anita. 

Most unexpected was the impressive performance of multi-talented Taylor Harley as Riff. Another former West Side Story International Tour cast member and the production’s “Rumble Fight” choreographer/stager, as an actor and singer, Harley was polished and believable as the troubled and tough-minded Riff. As a dancer, he more than held his own in ensemble production numbers with BalletMet’s professionals. 

While the entire musical proved a winner, a few memorable scenes and performances stood out. Act One notables included Webster’s soft, angelic rendition of the song “Maria,” which landed like one’s head nestling into a feather pillow; Cavazos sharp-witted performance as Anita along with Hannah Bullock as Rosalia and the Shark Girls ensemble’s highly entertaining word-play banter and dancing in the song “America;” Harley as Riff, and the Jets ensemble in a near flawless song and dance rendition of the song “Cool;” and the expertly choreographed and performed “Rumble” scene.

Act Two’s standout scenes and performances included Ryan Shreve, almost losing his voice as the wise-cracking Action, and the laugh-out-loud Jets ensemble in “Gee, Officer Krupke,” and Lopez as Maria in a tour-de-force outpouring of sorrow and defiance in the production’s finale. Lopez’s gun-wielding Maria on the edge of murder, suicide, or both after the death of Tony was delivered with abandon. Her passionate plea for an end to the violence and hatred by the warring gangs was powerful and turned a mirror onto our contemporary world plagued by such violence, hatred, and prejudice.

Kudos also go out to the performances of Isaac Tobler as Bernardo, Lyndsey Adams as Anybodys, Brian Gray as Officer Krupke, Alan Tyson as Doc, Jessica Brown as Velma, David Ward as Dream Tony, and Francesca Dugarte as Dream Maria, all who shone in the spotlight of their characters. 

With so many moving parts, West Side Story was undoubtedly a monumental undertaking for all involved. Triumphant on many levels, it will hopefully lead to other banner co-productions by Columbus’ major arts organizations in the not-so-distant future.