Spinning Tree delivers a passionate West Side Story

I confess I’m biased: I’ve always loved West Side Story. Fortunately for me — and for anyone else who cherishes the 1957 musical — Spinning Tree directors Andy Parkhurst and Michael Grayman do, too.

They met while appearing in a European tour of West Side Story in 1998. Grayman had worked under original choreographer and director Jerome Robbins (who won a Tony for this work) and Arthur Laurents, who wrote the book. They have both performed Robbins’ steps, and now they’ve largely re-created them in Spinning Tree’s fresh, vibrant and timely revival. I had worried that, almost six decades on, a show about ’50s-era gangs would feel dated. But any concern was unfounded. I laughed. I cried. I struggled not to sing along.

Leonard Bernstein’s jazzy, syncopated score — influenced by his symphonic background — played in a continuous loop in my head following Spinning Tree’s show, making me want to reprise the choreography myself. Good sense prevailed — I didn’t — but that’s the effect that this intimate, dance-filled musical had on me.

Laurents’ script and Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics (WSS was Sondheim’s Broadway debut) weave social statement into a tale that strongly parallels Romeo and Juliet. Bernstein’s distinctive compositions rhythmically balance those Shakespearean forces of attraction and opposition.

The enmity involves two gangs: the white Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks. No one talks of building a wall to keep people out, but the resentment toward immigrants will sound familiar to anyone paying attention to current politics. The rivals’ sit-down “war council” may seem quaint in the age of the drive-by shooting, but the gang members’ knives and street fights remain real-world alarming — a credit to the cast members’ depictions of tough. The police, too, display menace and prejudice. “I’ve got the badge, you’ve got the skin,” Lt. Schrank (a very good Kevin Fewell) says to Sharks leader Bernardo (Donovan Woods, excellent), who responds by whistling an ironic “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” There’s comic relief, too. Trevor Belt’s more bumbling cop gets serenaded in “Gee, Officer Krupke,” whose lyrics still resonate.

But it’s the force of attraction that’s at the heart of this musical, which is a love story — a tragic love story, but one that’s also laced with humor. The show’s hero is Tony (Jacob Aaron Cullum, in a standout performance). He has given up the gang life, to the consternation of his friend, Jets leader Riff (Daniel Parman, also good). “Without a gang, you’re an orphan,” he tells Tony, who reluctantly agrees to attend that night’s big dance. Cullum’s beautiful “Something’s Coming” foreshadows his meetup with Maria (a perfect Megan Herrera), a recent immigrant who is all innocence and longing. His lovely “Maria” tells us later just how he feels.

No shots are fired at the gathering, but there’s little mixing, either. Bernardo and his girl, Anita (Vanessa Severo), make an entrance that exudes chemistry. The women attached to both gangs aren’t mere decoration but a force all their own, particularly Severo in this supporting but significant role. On-point and charismatic, she leads a rousing “America” with Rosalia (a strong Shon Ruffin) and the other “Shark Girls”: Kyra Weinberger, Tiffany Powell, Jodi Pyltsov and Rebecca Carroll. Meanwhile, Tony and Maria have left the party to cement the deal in their balcony scene, a tenement on Manhattan’s West Side.

We know the path this story takes, yet its details reward. And this production is filled with more noteworthy performances than I can mention: Cullum and Herrera’s “One Hand, One Heart”; Severo and Herrera’s “A Boy Like That” and “I Have a Love”; Kip Niven, as Doc, who runs the drugstore where Tony works and the Jets congregate; Kenneth Personett as Action, a leading member of the Jets; and Daria LeGrand, who does good work here as a tomboy who just wants to be accepted.

It isn’t perfect. The music sometimes overpowers the voices; seating occasionally restricts the view, including at crucial moments; and the balcony scene at times feels off-pace, a little rushed here, slower there. But these distractions don’t diminish the edge-of-the-seat tension and enthralling action; the fine ensemble performances; the depth achieved with lighting (by Sean Glass), blocking and, of course, choreography (including the fights, by Samantha Barboza); and the distinctive music, played here by a nine-piece orchestra — percussion, woodwind, strings and horns (conducted by pianist Gary Green).

It’s a captivating show whose main drawbacks really are these: The play comes to an end, and the production itself closes soon.