West Side Story to star Anthony Levin
West Side Story – arguably the greatest musical of all time – comes to Sydney’s Zenith Theatre in Chatswood this November with Sydney actor-singer and human rights lawyer Anthony Levin performing the plum role of ‘Tony’.
Anthony Levin
Famously based on Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet and featuring the sublime meeting of Stephen Sondheim’s brilliant lyrics and Leonard Bernstein’s extraordinary score, West Side Story places star crossed-lovers Tony and Maria squarely at the centre of a New York City gang war.
The two young, idealistic lovers in the Chatswood Musical Society production find themselves caught between warring street gangs, the established “American” Jets and the immigrant Puerto Rican Sharks. Their struggle to survive in a world of hate, violence and prejudice is one of the most innovative, heart-wrenching and relevant musical dramas of our time.
With fantastic dancing and jam-packed with timeless hit songs like Maria, Somewhere, Tonight, America and I Feel Pretty – among many more – the all-singing, all-dancing show is funny, thrilling, heart-breaking and absolutely timeless in its appeal to audiences of all ages.
Directed by Chapin Ayres, with musical director Kane Wheatley and choreographer Stephanie Edmonds, West Side Story stars Randwick’s Anthony Levin as Tony as well as David Wiernik (who recently starred as Peter in The Diary of Anne Frank at New Theatre) as ‘A-rab’ and Kelly Goldberg as Graziella. Kate Mannix is production manager.
Anthony Levin with his Maria
Anthony Levin is a writer, performer and human rights lawyer. His passion for the performing arts was cultivated early through piano and high school productions, but ultimately flourished at university, where he and some friends established their own comedy troupe called Nice Guys Productions.
During over a decade of writing and performing together, Anthony’s joint achievements include co-creating award-winning comedy such as the stage show Rip Whitening’s SynchroDestiny Experience (winner of the People’s Choice Award, Sydney Fringe Festival 2010), contributing sketches to The Ronnie Johns Half-Hour (Channel 10) and co-writing the short film, Heidi Fires Everyone (2013), shortlisted for Tropfest and featured on SBS. Anthony has also voiced characters for the animated black comedy series Psychotown (2008), selected for the Animation Show curated by Mike Judge (creator, Beavis and Butt-head).
Over the years, Anthony has performed in various community musicals including playing the parts of Hero in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (2004) and Leon Czolgosz in Assassins (Bump In Productions, 2005). As a human rights lawyer at Legal Aid NSW, Anthony works with vulnerable and socio-economically disadvantaged clients. He also has a Masters in Modern and Contemporary Literature, and is a published poet.
West Side Story runs 13-21 November at the Zenith Theatre Chatswood.
Performances: Wed-Sat 7.30pm plus Sat 2pm and Sun 4pm
Tickets: Adult $35.58| Concession $32.52 |
Family of Four (2 Adults and 2 Concessions) $101.85
Bookings: www.chatswoodmusicals.org or call 1300 66 22 12
Discounted group 4+ bookings via Zenith Theatre 9777 7547
