'West Side Story' on Broadway

The further we get in time from when “West Side Story” was written, the more the musicals mythic dimension come into focus. This beloved 1957 classic earns its timeless status not through the authenticity of its snapshot of gang-ridden New York but rather through its re-envisioning of Romeo and Juliet as a ravishing fusion of drama, dance and song.

Broadways new bilingual production of ;West Side Story, which opened Thursday at the Palace Theatre under the direction of Arthur Laurents, the books 91- year-old author, aims for a more realistic approach. What we get is a grittier look at the street violence between the Sharks and the Jets, those turf-warring toughs from Manhattans Upper West Side, and the translation (by Lin-Manuel Miranda) of some of the dialogue and lyrics into a more dramatically appropriate Spanish.

These renovations all make perfect sense (why shouldnt the recently arrived Puerto Rican Sharks comfortably converse in their native tongue?). But its the heartbreaking story of two amorous young people, caught in the ethnic enmity of their rival communities, that continues to grip us amazingly, even in a production in which Tony (Matt Cavenaugh) and Maria (Josefina Scaglione) struggle to fill out their archetypal roles as star-crossed lovers.

The shows indestructibility, if ever in doubt, is now beyond doubt. Laurents direction, while not a miscarriage, is extremely patchy, particularly when the plotting gets complicated. As with his recent Broadway staging of Gypsy, that other bellwether of the American musical he co-authored, the blocking of key narrative moments can get smudgy.

Fortunately, just as youre noticing that Scagliones singing is a whole lot better than her acting and Cavenaugh is about as tough as a lanky J. Crew model, a Jerome Robbins dance number, vibrantly reproduced by Joey McKneely, whisks you into an ecstasy zone where all such complaints seem trivial. Unfolding on an impressionistically grimy New York set designed by James Youmans and lighted by Howell Binkley to suggest an urban inferno, the musical manages to stay one step ahead of its productions shortcomings.

Certainly, the extraordinary variety and operatic fullness of Leonard Bernsteins score goes a long way toward covering up the directorial fumbling of crucial emotional events (including the rushed, clumsily staged final scene). And the bright wattage of Stephen Sondheims lyrics alert us to depths overlooked by the actors.

Miranda, the composer, lyricist and former star of the Tony-winning ;In the Heights, has prepared a Spanish version of “I Feel Pretty" ("Siento Hermosa") that has the same bubbly effect as the original. And though I missed hearing the pungently phrased “A Boy Like That" ("Un Hombre Asi") in English, Karen Olivos Anita, the sharp- tongued girlfriend of Marias overprotective brother Bernardo (George Akram), spits out the words as though she were shooting daggers from her mouth.