West Side Story is prominently featured in the British Plays and Players for the third issue in a row, a noteworthy streak that aptly foreshadows the British theatergoers’ great interest in the masterwork. This time around the presentation is a review by the noted author Caryl Brahms
. That the work was new to the UK is evidenced by a couple of slips that would be almost impossible to make after the release of the film version (Bernardo as Jet, Tony as Shark, the youngest Jet as "Baby Boy"). More to the point, Ms Brahms was unstinting in her lavish praise of the work and unwavering in her confidence in its prospects. Her favorable comparison of West Side Story to the already classic and much-beloved My Fair Lady is at once astounding and most satisfying. The bulk of Ms Brahms’ negative criticism is directed not at the show but to her fellow Brits: "When shall we, the English, find the vision and vitality to write its equal?" and her prediction about the future needs of theater talent is downright eerie in its prescience: West Side Story proved to Caryl Brahms, in 1958, "that in future no dancer will be able to afford not to be some sort of a singer; no singer but she must be able to act; no actress but she must also dance."
