Cubana Bop play West Side Story

A quick glance around the sell-out audience, (staid and respectable) for this Fringe show by Terry Seabrook’s magnificent 8-piece ensemble would not have prepared you for the ecstatic reaction it gave to their performance of Bernstein and Sondheim’s songs from West Side Story. A work in progress, with hopefully more to come, half a dozen classic gems were premiered tonight, including a masterfully controlled ‘Maria’, a playful ‘I Feel Pretty’, which even Bernstein would have found a touch too scherzando, and a brilliantly arranged ‘America’, the Latin influence of the original given full expression. Bravo, a festival performance of real class.

The Brunswick, 23 May 2012

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