From around the world: Bregenz.(International--West side Story performed at the Bregenz Festival's Floating Stage)(Theater Review)

The Bregenz Festival's Floating Stage rests on Lake Constance and plays to a 7,000-seat ampitheater. Creating a viable production for this venue requires a magical juggling of spectacular scenic elements and a huge cast (often more than one hundred performers), all the while trying to remain true to the authors' intentions. With West Side Story (seen July 29), director Francesca Zambello proved herself a sorceress of the highest order.

From the ambient noise and dozens of gray-suited, anonymous mimes (strap-hanging, typing) that greeted the audience as it entered the arena, to the kaleidoscopic groupings of the gangs, there was no doubt as to time and place. Zambello delivered a deft blend of private and public, comic and tragic: Maria and Tony were charming kids playing dress-up in the bridal shop, suddenly becoming adults with "One Hand, One Heart"; pedestrians ignored the EMS workers removing the bodies of Rift and Bernardo from the street.

As in real-life New York, intimate dramas were played against a dramatic backdrop. George Tsypin's microcosm of Manhattan was dominated by a skyscraper that rose from the lake in twisted steel and shards of glass. (Any resemblance to the World Trade Center was purely coincidental: production designs were cemented in early 2001.) The tower remained mostly an atmospheric effect, with action centered inside and in front of a crumbling three-story brick tenement (complete with fire escapes and graffiti), which revolved to suggest various locales, and ...