A passionate Tony for "West Side Story"

"Could it be?

Yes it could

Something's coming, something good ... "

— from "Something's Coming," music by Leonard Bernstein and words by Stephen Sondheim

Last month Louis Hobson was rehearsing the song "Something's Coming" when word arrived that his wife, Noreen, a local talent agent, had gone into labor with their first child.

Hobson got to his wife in time for the birth of their daughter, Gwyneth. But as Bill Berry, director of the 5th Avenue Theatre's new production of "West Side Story" wryly tells it, the actor was so engrossed in singing the Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim score, his colleagues nearly had to push him out the door.

"Louis kept saying, 'There's time for one more song!' And we kept telling him, 'No there isn't!' "

Don't get him wrong — Hobson is happy to be a new dad. But the intensely focused performer is also wrapped up in a role he's long dreamed of playing.

That would be Tony, ex-member of the Jets street gang, who falls tragically in love with Maria, sister of the leader of the Sharks, a rival Puerto Rican gang.

Timed with the 50th anniversary of the show's 1957 Broadway debut, the deluxe 5th Avenue production of "West Side Story" boasts a cast of 43 and a 25-piece orchestra.

But Tony and Maria, whom author Arthur Laurents patterned after Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, are at the throbbing heart of this iconic work.

Hobson was the 5th Avenue's first (and only) pick for Tony. Why? "When Louis walks onstage, there's something intrinsically interesting about him," claims Berry. "You want to know more about him. It's that special something performers either just have, or they don't."

Hobson, 30, has it. And the tall, fresh-faced Puyallup native has been flaunting (and honing) it since his Rogers High School days.

Hobson's soaring singing voice, solid acting and boyish good looks have won the Pacific Lutheran University grad many plum leading-man gigs. Some of his best work: Che Guevara in Village Theatre's "Evita"; Claude in "Hair"; Chris in "Miss Saigon," at the 5th Avenue; and (out of the "male ingenue" box), the role of a neurotic gay teen in Empty Space Theatre's "Stupid Kids."

But Tony, Hobson's last Seattle role before relocating to New York, has special (and humbling) demands.

"I've worked with my voice teacher on this for months," says Hobson. "So many people have heard the music and seen the movie a thousand times. You don't want to disappoint them."

Or disappoint yourself. The artistically ambitious Hobson knows the degree of difficulty here. And with Berry, he discussed three of the role's major challenges: the range needed to sing the part of Tony, convincingly pulling off love at first sight and keeping Tony tough.

Tony's unearthly singing range

Many a fellow has stumbled at the pinnacle of the soaring love song "Maria," trying to hit a high B-flat in the final bars.

Tony also has high-wire notes in several other "West Side Story" standards: "Something's Coming," "Tonight" and the inspirational "Somewhere."

"Bernstein didn't pull any punches in this music," observes Hobson. "The meter and tempo are constantly changing. You have a lot of lower notes, then suddenly you're up in your upper range — a hard place to navigate for a high baritone like me."

While sharpening his pitch control (his peak will be A-flat) and falsetto, Hobson is also plumbing the score's operatic emotions.

"The show has a lot of intense personal relationships that explode like little bombs," asserts Berry. "You have to get to the emotional truth and believe in what you're singing."

Hobson's favorite number? "One Hand, One Heart," a hushed duet with Maria. "It's a simple love song. It's not corny, not cheesy, not sentimental. It's just honest."

Love at first sight

Maria meets Tony at a dance. They lock eyes and lips. The rest is history.

It's also an acting challenge for Hobson: "You wonder, can love like that exist? And will the audience buy it?"

"You have to realize these young people have never experienced anything like this," adds Berry. "Like Romeo and Juliet, they make a commitment to their love and pursue it to its conclusion."

And if the romantic chemistry ain't there, you may as well sing "Tonight" to your great-aunt Fanny.

To cast Maria, Berry hunted for the vocal, physical, emotive and ethnic match for Hobson's Tony. "It makes no sense to have two white actors as Maria and Tony, in a show dealing with racial prejudice."

When opera-trained, almond-skinned Maegan McConnell walked into a Los Angeles audition for the part, "We found our Maria. Maegan looked great and sang beautifully."

Hobson didn't meet McConnell until they sang together at the 5th Avenue's "Spotlight Night" preview of "West Side Story." He was relieved to find their voices, and heights, blended well.

"During one song I had to stand behind Maeg, and put my arms around her," Hobson says. "We fit together just right."

Tony's gone straight, but he's no wuss

You have to believe, somehow, that those balletic Jets and high-kicking Sharks are tough kids ready to rumble. Tony too — or else he can come off as an insipid goody-two shoes.

"When you first hear about him, it's his best friend Riff saying, 'I and Tony started the Jets,' says Berry. "He left the gang, but Tony's still capable of violence."

To research a gang era when fists and switchblades were the weapons of choice, Hobson read Harrison Salisbury's 1958 book on the New York gang scene, "The Shook Up Generation." For a modern view, the cast met with local ex-gang members and law enforcers.

Most useful to Hobson: learning that poor urban teens tend to join gangs simply to survive and be part of a surrogate family.

"Guys like Riff and Tony had no choice," says Hobson. "If you didn't belong, and walked down the wrong block, you'd get beat up."

Despite his gentleness with Maria, Tony doesn't hesitate to avenge a gang "brother" — just as Shakespeare's Romeo avenged his buddy Mercutio.

To get in touch with such rage, Hobson recalled the day in 2001 when he heard his mentor James Holloway was killed in a random campus shooting at PLU. "Jim was my college music teacher and a beautiful person. Later I wept for him. But my first thought was that I wanted to find and kill the guy who did it."

Bowing out of Seattle?

Exposing the conflicted emotional core of Tony, and singing one of Broadway's most gorgeous scores, will be Hobson's last gig before he heads to New York.

We've waved goodbye to many young Seattle stage artists who want — and deserve — broader success. But Hobson doesn't rule out tackling future "dream roles" here — the lead in Adam Guettel's "Floyd Collins," Billy Bigelow in "Carousel."

Only first there is Tony to conquer.

"If people cry at the end, if they come to care and feel for these characters, I'll be happy," Hobson states. "I know I won't be the definitive Tony. At the end of the day I'm still just me. But this will be my Tony."

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com