Good Theater, Bad Review

Jan Herman’s review of the UCI School of Fine Arts production of “West Side Story” (“ ‘West Side’ Leaves Its Heart in the Suburbs,” Nov. 26) was highly critical and unfair. I too attended the performance, but I found it to be one of the best productions ever undertaken by the School of Fine Arts. In fact, I found it to be a classier production than the so-called “professional” touring group that performed it at the Performing Arts Center a number of years ago.

Herman’s view that the audience was more apt to snooze through the show and to sit there in deathly silence was not one that I nor anyone else in the packed house experienced on Tuesday night. The applause given the cast throughout the performance was both spontaneous and deafening.

You’re wrong, Herman. The unmistakable problem was not the “suburban spirit” of the cast. It was your inability to get involved.

Bravo! to director Eli Simon, choreographer Donald McKayle, scenic designer Jeff Hall, musical director Dennis Castellano, the entire cast and technical crew for an outstanding production.

TEDD PETERSON, Irvine