The story of a tragic love affair amid the gang violence of 1950s New York is one of the highlights of this year's Youth Arts Festival. More than 100 young actors and actresses are staging a remake of the 1950s classic musical West Side Story. The musical is a contemporary version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet with the addition of some local flavour. In one scene, Tony, the American Romeo, cries out in English for his lover under her balcony. Maria, the Puerto Rican Juliet, returns his words of love in Cantonese. The story is set against the backdrop of New York City gang warfare in the late 1950s. There had been a huge influx of Puerto Ricans who had settled on the west side of the Big Apple. Intense hostility had built up between New Yorkers and the new immigrants. When Maria and Tony meet at a dance, it is love at first sight but also the start of a tragedy. Maria's brother Bernado is the leader of the Sharks, a Puerto Rican gang. And Tony is a member of its American rival, the Jets. On the night set for a showdown between the two gangs, the two lovers secretly plan for a wedding that will never be. 'There is a lot of action, not only the wonderful dance action,' said Lindsey McAlister, director of the musical and founder of the festival. In addition to fights and spectacular dances, the original two- and-a-half hour musical has been condensed into a one-hour show. 'The opening scene is quite dynamic,' McAlister said. 'And things move on quickly from one thing to another.' Unlike Juliet in the Shakespearean original, Maria stays alive in this production as she is the one to carry the anti-racist message: 'stop fighting', musical director Emma Featherstone said. Featherstone directs a live orchestra to play the show's classic numbers, including Tonight, Maria, America and Somewhere by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. 'The music is tremendously difficult. It's a huge challenge for the orchestra,' she said. The musicians are aged between 12 and 22. The setting is an ambiguous mix of Hong Kong and New York because of the limitations of the music, Ms McAlister said. 'One of the things we thought of doing and later decided not to do was to make it a Hong Kong show with two Hong Kong gangs,' she said. 'Because of the music, like America, it is very difficult to do anything other than keep that original.' The actors and actresses, aged between 16 and 24, said they enjoyed taking part in the musical. Dawen Wang, 18, from Sha Tin College, who plays Tony, said: 'I find it kind of interesting because it is bilingual. . . . it can actually give special flavour and colour to the story and emphasise the difference in culture.' His lover in the show, Rebecca Tu Yam-lui, 23, who plays Maria, said: 'The cast is very energetic. They are pretty inspiring.' Annie Cheng Pak-ying, 23, who plays one of the Sharks' girls, said: 'It's great to meet a lot of people from different places, it's like a community, a family.' The curtain goes up at 7 pm tomorrow, at 11 am and 7 pm from Thursday to Saturday at the Shouson Theatre, Hong Kong Arts Centre.
