I have just discovered a number called West Side Story by a promising duo called Bernstein and Sondheim.
How could I have reached the age of - well, never you mind - and not seen it? Like everyone else outside who hasn't dwelt in the Cloud Forest, I can hum the songs, but never saw the real thing.
So along with my eight-year-old, whose idea of the perfect night out is lashings of gang violence interspersed with a little light dancing, we toddled off to Sadler's Wells. From the first opening sequence, elegance and menace intertwined, we were clutching each other in anticipation of the "rumble".
The control over the audience's swooping emotions is masterful. So infectious is Maria's erotic giddiness that when she appears, we start to hope that somehow, somewhere, she and Tony will indeed find a new way of living - though alas, we know they won't this time.
West Side Story works because it is theatrical history, brims with top-flight songs and is, sadly, eternal in its subject matter - the brutal circle of life on the mean streets. Gee Officer Krupke remains the great send-up of muddled professionals dealing with cynical juveniles: "I'm psychologically distoibed!"
My assistant Liz, who possesses an encyclopaedic knowledge of West Side arcana, says my enthusiasm is an ingenue's passion. The production lacks real darkness and threat, she says. True, Tony is a very clean-cut gang leader - he looks as if he has a Harvard MBA. Did I fear the gangs? Not as much as I pitied them. Only the (brief) inclusion of a rape scene reminds us that for all the comedy, we are in true badlands.
As I delivered a homily about the perils of knife culture afterwards, my boy hummed "I like to be in America" and asked: "Yes, but which side are you on? I like the Jets." Way to go on the lessons learned, then. Great night out, though. Most of you probably knew that already.
West Side Story runs at Sadler's Wells until 31 August. See www. ambassadors.com for further dates in the South-East.
West Side Story
Sadler's Wells
Rosebery Avenue, EC1R 4TN
