With enthusiastic reviews and word-of-mouth about Sydney’s Opera on the Harbour West Side Story fresh in the Melbourne audience’s minds, the curtain went up on Opera Australia’s other, indoor production of this classic musical. There must be a compelling reason to have a second one siphoning potential audiences away from the alfresco spectacular. Compelling indeed given it is transferring to Sydney in August. Whatever the reason, it isn’t because this Opera Australia-GWB Entertainment co-production ticks all the boxes. Some boxes, especially dancing and orchestra, but the young, inexperienced cast hasn’t the necessary gravitas or nuance to carry off this dark tale.

Opera Australia’s West Side Story. Photo © Jeff Busby

Adapted from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and both directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, West Side Story was loaded with great, or soon-to-be great names when it first played Broadway in 1957. With extended dance sequences inherent to the unusually grim, contemporary story about two feuding gangs in working class New York, it revolutionised the American musical.

So, as with the many other productions that have appeared over the past...