"West Side Story" at Paper Mill

 Sondheim and Arthur Laurents were often at odds; Laurents was, by most accounts, one of the most hateful human beings in the history of American theater. Sondheim eventually wrote to Laurents, "You have just enough talent to realize how mediocre you are." It's hard to imagine one person saying that to another person.

There are moments of mediocrity in "West Side Story"--I'm recalling the adult characters--but Laurents also wrote "Gypsy." Can we think of "Gypsy"'s writer as mediocre?

I admire the pendulum swings of "West Side Story," mainly in the Second Act. We start with Maria in ignorance; as far as she knows, no killings have occurred. We then get the brutal truth. We then retreat to a dream world, in which everyone has a restart, a blank slate. Think again: Anita shakes Maria out of her stupor. Think again: Maria melts Anita's heart. But the Jets then assault Anita, causing her to tell a vicious lie. But Tony is given ocular proof of the fact that Anita has lied. But Chino murders Tony; Tony's moment of happiness has been very brief. The end.

It's also interesting that Tony dominates the First Act; Maria's appearance is quite late in the context of the story. By contrast, it's Maria who moves center stage in the Second Act. Maria gets the final speech, which is its own kind of violent act, a moment of rhetorical violence:

How do you fire this gun, Chino? By pulling this little trigger? How many bullets are left, Chino? Enough for you? You Sharks killed Tony...You all killed him. Well, I can kill now too, because I have hate. How many can I kill, Chino, and still have one bullet left for me? Don't touch him. Te adoro, Anton.

It's Arthur Laurents's powerful imagination that creates this startling end. Of course Maria would focus on the specifics, the mechanics, of the object in her hand. She has no idea what happens within the innards of a gun. (It's also plausible that Sondheim was thinking of Laurents very late in the twentieth century, when Sondheim wrote "The Gun Song," a declaration of wonder. "It takes a lot of men to make a gun....Hundreds....Many men to make a gun. And all you have to do is move your little finger. Move your little finger--you can change the world.")

Paper Mill's production of "West Side Story" has a major flaw, which is that the young man playing Tony seems like a choir boy. (I would like to see Isaac Powell in this role.) And while Laurents made cartoon characters out of the adult figures, it's possible to imagine skillful performers creating a sense of depth; the adult performers in the Paper Mill show don't pull this off.

That said, Paper Mill has managed a respectable "exhibition" of a brutally difficult work. That's an achievement. I wish Paper Mill's ambitions were more consistent; maybe the managing directors are trying harder now that COVID is in the rearview mirror.