The previous show preformed by the drama department, “Rumors,” was a show I called meh. It was all right for having been under rehearsed. “West Side Story,” on the other hand, faired immensely better. For the most part.

“West Side Story” is a basic retelling of “Romeo & Juliet” set in the mid-1950s New York, done in the still of a musical. Being a musical entails, obviously, a great deal of singing as well as dancing. This would be “West Side Stories” greatest asset and weakness.

For a high school production, the voices of Maria (Sophomore, Hannah Blacklaw) and Tony (Senior, Justin Savage) were on par with the style of operatic singers, yet, whether it was because of a screw up in production or practice, the actor’s always sounded muted as though they were never giving it their all. They had no passion in what they were saying, no connection to the characters plight and as for the group songs, there was obviously a lack of practice on the synchronization of the actors.

Now as for the dancing, for having untrained actors, most all seemed to pick up the relatively complex choreography, and the use of dance team dancer’s certainly added to the quality of the performance. The only problems to be seen was a bit of, again, under practice, but not as noticeable as the singing.

Though many of the actors were obviously untrained the director knew which actors to give lines to as a matter of the show’s quality. Overall, the actors were confident and projected to the audience with emotion, yet still lacked ever so slightly in the execution, making for a sort of unnatural delivery.

As for the production, it was rather grand, even having the proper backset of a dirty New York slum. It proved versatile for all the necessary scenes, with no distracting factors in the build. The only distraction would be that the costumes somewhat fit, but for the most part seemed in the wrong era or style. The dresses that were supposed to be Puerto Rican in style were clearly just a mish-mash of random skirts with a top, but the jets faired better with more New Yorker styled outfits.

“West Side Story” improved greatly from “Rumors” and shows the growth within the school’s theater, and makes me even more excited about future productions.