Joey McKneely :: Making 'West Side Story' edgier

Joey McKneely got his first lesson in West Side Story from the master himself. Still a relative newbie in New York, just a few years out of high school and a six-month stab at college, he was cast in Jerome Robbins' Broadway. This was the legendary director-choreographer's final hurrah, as Robbins recreated scenes and dance numbers from a resume that included Fiddler on the Roof, Gypsy, On the Town, The King and I, Peter Pan, and, of course, West Side Story.

After that experience, McKneely soon retired as a Broadway dancer and turned full-time to developing a career as a choreographer. There just weren't any other choreographers on the scene that stoked his creative juices, he said. While he has since earned credits as choreographer on four Broadway shows, including The Boy from Oz and Smokey Joe's Cafe, he has spent most of the time spreading the West Side Story gospel around the world.

A little more grit

Since 2000, he has been directing and choreographing international productions of West Side Story that have toured through Europe, Asia, and Australia. "I want to say West Side Story is my day job," he said recently from his home outside New York City. "But now, I've basically brought West Side everyplace in the world where it can possibly go."

When he got the call asking him to join the team putting together the current Broadway revival (currently at the Pantages Theatre through January 2, 2011 in a newly minted tour), it was as choreographer only. The director would be Broadway legend Arthur Laurents, who wrote the libretto for the original 1957 production.

"If it was just an average director, I think I might have had reservations about that," McKneely said of relinquishing the directorial title. "But the chance to work with Arthur Laurents has actually enriched my understanding of the stories and the characters, because he created them."

For the revival, Laurents, now 92, changed some of Robbins' original staging as well as his own book. Bits of dialogue among the Puerto Rican characters is now in Spanish, and a few of Stephen Sondheim's lyrics set to Leonard Bernstein's score have also been translated into Spanish.

"Arthur wanted a little more grit," McKneely said of the Romeo and Juliet tale reset among warring, ethnically divided street gangs. "For example, the prologue is totally different. In the original, it opens with very balletic steps. Arthur felt that it immediately took the show away from reality. So just by changing things like arm positions and creating a little more aggression, it gave it an edgier feel."

A better production

After the revival opened on Broadway, and before work began on the road company, McKneely headed to Australia to mount a tour that is currently crossing that continent. It is the original West Side Story, without the Laurents changes, but, McKneely said, "I think it is a better production because of having worked with Arthur."

Learning from such masters as Robbins and Laurents is not free of drama, with both men famous for their strongly expressed opinions. McKneely, 43, had his share of getting cut down. "I could get a little hot at times, a little cocky, and they put me in my place. As I get older and become the old guy, I try to pass on the lessons that I have learned, even though those old guys never passed on the lessons. They thought you had to learn the lessons for yourself because that's how they learned their lessons. I tell my cast, 'I did X,Y, and Z, and I'm telling you not to do that,' And then they end up doing it anyway, and I end up screaming at them."

It's all part of the process, he said. "We work in fear. But if there wasn't that emotion, I don't think the emotion would cross over to the audience. When I'm in rehearsal I will use every negative word in the book because this story deals with racism, and certain words garner certain emotions. I'm trying to push these kids past their comfortable boundaries."

McKneely is very conscious that whenever he stages a production of West Side Story, it is not his choreography that he is putting up on the stage. "But there are things here and there where I put a little bit of McKneely into it because of my energy or the way I would dance it."

He's hoping, of course, for more opportunities to let loose with the McKneely style. He's soon off to China to stage a new musical built around the songs of the late Chinese pop superstar Teresa Teng. "It's kind of a Mamma Mia thing," he said. But his main passion is in getting a new musical about Josephine Baker to Broadway next season.

Still, he doesn't believe that West Side Story will ever be completely out of his life. "West Side Story is like a gift that has been given to me, and it's a responsibility that I can't walk away from. As long as they keep calling, I'll keep showing up."

West Side Story continues through January 2, 2011 at the Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA. For more information visit www.broadwayla.org.