It would be well up there in any list of the greatest musicals ever written, and at the very least a really good production will make you want to dance, maybe fight and possibly even fall in love. Paul Kerryson and Kully Thiarai's production doesn't quite achieve that, although it has its moments when everything comes together in one glorious hail of emotion, music and bodies flying across the stage. David Needham's choreography is never less than electric.
Best of all, from the very beginning, the evening not only indicates the quiet before the storm - the love affair between Tony and Maria, the 1950s Romeo and Juliet torn apart by feuding, that lies at the heart of all the sound and fury - but also how tragedy is born of prejudice and lack of tolerance towards immigrants. This is not political correctness gone mad, but quietly indicated in a design and production in which the American Jet's protection of their patch against the incoming Puerto Rican Sharks is all the more desperate because they have so little worth protecting in the run down West Side ball parks with their wire enclosures. You keep getting the sense that everyone is caged.
There is also a strong sense of how the Puerto Rican women are much more willing and capable of embracing America than their men, who are still lost in old honour systems. It is a point beautifully demonstrated in the tensions between Leyla Pellegrini's fluid, fiery and sympathetic Anita and her husband Bernardo, superbly played with stiff-backed pride by John Tolenna. The Catholic influence is never forgotten either, with Maria's bedroom dominated by religious iconography.
The evening is terrific when the two gangs are at loggerheads, but less successful when it concentrates on the lovers, largely because Camilla Beeput's Maria looks and sings like an angel but doesn't have the acting skills to carry the part. Mark McKee is excellent as the all-American Tony, growing up and growing away from his former gang mates. This is not a classic production of a classic musical, but an honourable attempt and an enjoyable night of musical theatre.
· Until February 11. Box office: 0116-253 9797.
