Two local schools perform West Side Story in joint production

The cast was made up of boys from Merchant Taylor’s school and girls from St-Helen’s School – every year, each school hosts either the musical or the play.

 This year, Merchant Taylor’s hosted a production of the timeless West Side Story.

MTS’ West Side Story, with a cast of 45+ pupils from both schools and an orchestra of 30+ musician was "incredible", according to one audience member.

The heart-wrenching musical was put on for three nights in a row, the product of many hours of work from both students and teachers over the course of three months.

Monty, a Drama Scholar at MTS’ who played Miguel said that “The set and support from the staff was like nothing I had had in any production before”. Over 400 people attended closing night – a daunting but exciting audience for many of the students. “Performing to such a big audience was surreal”, said Monty.

Milan, who played Action, said that the Musical was “Very rewarding” but hard work in the weeks running up to the show

The hard work, however, seemed to pay off - Milan lead The Jets in singing "Gee Officer Krupke," which raised the roof on all three nights. 

Despite being a musical, which is usually seen as light-hearted or feel-good entertainment, West Side Story (School Version) deals with some serious themes such as racism and violence. Many of those who had not seen West Side Story before found MTS' version surprisingly gritty or serious at times, and the actors involved worked hard to do justice to these themes. 

I interviewed a young audience member, who preferred not to be named.

“The first thing I noticed when I walked into the hall was the incredibly detailed set. It was hard to imagine that I was sitting in a hall and not a city street”, she said.

“My favourite song was Tonight. Maria and Tony had beautiful voices… I loved Riff’s acting in particular and I thought all the accents were amazing... I felt transported to 1950s New York."