HALF a century is an exceptionally long time for West Side Story, the quintessential teen rebellion musical, to retain its edge. Director Joey McKneely, while staying predominantly true to Jerome Robbins' original choreography, has encouraged his athletic young ensemble to invest their finger-clicks, kicks and knife swipes with a demonstrable passion and violence that leaps off the stage. Anita's sexual assault by the Jets for example, is disconcertingly graphic. But the stumbling-block for a modern audience will always be Arthur Laurents' script, dated with the hip linguistics of the beat generation. The cast understandably struggle and have little apparent empathy or willingness to invest phrases like "daddy-o" with the cocksure swagger and accomplished assurance they convey in their movement. This inevitably infantilises the two gangs and reduces the stakes of a racially motivated neighbourhood turf war to a playground squabble. It scarcely helps that the "New Yoik" accents of the English cast fluctuate wildly, though they succeed rather better with Puerto Rican.

The songs of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim continue to elevate this otherwise shamelessly superficial retelling of Romeo and Juliet, and if Daniel Koek seems a little old as Tony, he at least sings well. Sofia Escobar's voice is far too weak for Maria to make an impression and she is overshadowed by Oneika Phillips as the proud, wronged Anita, leading a memorable, high-kicking rendition of America.