“West Side Story” – musical theater at LA Opera
Mean Streets “West Side Story” by Bondo Wyszpolski Here’s a show that shouldn’t be here. LA Opera opened its 40th season not with an opera, but with a musical, a work that normally would have been a perfect fit for the Ahmanson Theatre, across the Music Center Plaza, and not the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Having operatic leads (Gabriella Reyes as Maria, and Duke Kim as Tony) may have been the rationale for LA Opera to greenlight “West Side Story”, but when you place opera singers in a fast-paced musical you really are mixing oil and water. That’s not to say we have a disaster on our hands, because the production works well enough, but the whole thing is problematic, and that’s not to take anything away from the vocal prowess of Reyes and Kim. Amanda Castro (center) as Anita in LA Opera’s 2025 production of West Side Story. Left to right: Rachel Josefina (Francisca), Jordyn Waldo (Teresita), Amanda Castro (Anita), Julia Harnett (Consuelo) and Erin Gonzales (Estella). (Photo: Cory Weaver)“West Side Story” is one of the most successful musicals of modern times. It premiered on Broadway in 1957 and featured music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Arthur…
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