The well-known and much admired Balcony Scene is supported by what many feel to be the best song in the show. The tireless efforts of Leonard Bernstein seem to reach something of a pinnacle at this point, with the orchestra having been playing continuously, even through applause, from the Mambo, Cha-Cha, Meeting Scene and Hop segments of The Dance at the Gym, right through "Maria" to the unforgettable rendezvous at the fire escape. The number ends (and the orchestra stops, finally, for a well-deserved breather) with a passage that is satisfactory in its own right: even, placid and unthreatening. For a first viewing the moment is serene; only theatergoers already familiar with the score are aware that the music is a reference to the still unheard "Somewhere," foreshadowing with deft expertise the abrupt end of the doomed romance that the happy and unsuspecting lovers have barely begun.
Star-crossed lovers
Don McKay and Marlys Watters
London Original Cast
1958
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