West Side Story

MAY 9, 10 & 11, 2025 | 7:00 PM
​THE BICENTENNIAL PAVILION | THE INDIANAPOLIS ZOO

In an exciting return to the Indianapolis Zoo, with an original onsite design inspired by the beautiful Bicentennial Pavilion, Indianapolis Opera presents a beloved musical classic, West Side Story! A modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, West Side Story is set in 1950s New York, where growing racial tensions between the Sharks, a gang of first-generation Puerto Rican immigrants, and the Jets, made up of ‘American’ boys, lead to an all-out street fight over territory. Meanwhile Tony, best friend of the Jets’ leader Riff, and Maria, sister to Shark’s leader Bernardo, unwittingly fall in love at a neighborhood dance, despite their differing backgrounds. But the purity of their love is challenged as chaos, prejudice, and tragedy churn around them. Boasting a brilliant score from Leonard Bernstein and libretto from Stephen Sondheim with famous numbers, like “Maria,” “Tonight,” and “Somewhere,” this production features an internationally acclaimed cast and shares a hope for peace in trying times. 

ARTISTIC TEAM
A. Scott Parry – Director
Maestro Alfred Savia – Conductor
Bernard McDonald – Associate Conductor
Doug King – Choreographer
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CAST
Cristina Maria Castro – Maria
Eric Botto – Tony
Olga Perez Flora – Anita
Kenneth Stavert – Riff
Ryan Henry – Bernardo
Ella Torres – Rosalia/Maria Cover
Luisana Rivas – Consuelo/Anita Cover
Will Upham – Action/Tony Cover
​Matthew Altman – Chino
Steve Wrighton – Doc
Sean Manterfield – Officer Krupke
Benjamin Elliot – Detective Schrank
Megan Arrington – Anybodys
Sam Witmer – Diesel
Joey Boos – Baby John
Andy Riggs – Snowboy

Why West Side Story?
“Somehow, somewhere,
We'll find a new way of living,
We'll find a way of forgiving.
Somewhere.”
 
Perhaps the most famous lyric in West Side Story comes in Act Two during a dream sequence, one in which our star-crossed lovers imagine a place where difference and violence can be set aside and the inequities of the past can be forgiven in order to discover a new way of seeing each other not as identities, but as human beings. We take this opportunity to present a production that attempts to allow for this kind of hope for unity in a more universal way, looking at the core aspect of “othering” seen in the show and extending it beyond the initial creators' reimagining of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet set in 1950s New York. We broaden this to explore all the aspects of “the other” that we find in the world today, including those issues of race and ethnicity found in the show, but also differences of religion, politics, gender, class, disability, and socio-economic status. Ultimately, the challenge is to hold tight to love in the face of its opposite, which is not hate, but fear.  To fear – and therefore hate – the “other” is in a sense to disavow our own humanity.  Let us strive to find that “somewhere” Tony and Maria long for within our own communities and our own selves.

-- A. Scott Parry, stage director

​Tickets: West Side Story
May 9, 10, & 11 at 7:00 PM
​The Indianapolis Zoo, Bicentennial Pavilion