“The real star of the show was the orchestra, brilliant and brassy and jazzy, conducted with hip style and panache by LA Opera’s outgoing music director James Conlon. Conlon’s keen and loving understanding of Bernstein’s eclectic style, due to his own Manhattan childhood, infused the production with vitality and immediacy. Conlon drew out the score’s intricate and operatic patterning of recurring motifs and its sophisticated rhythmic variety, from mambo to cha-cha to ballet.” – San Francisco Classical Voice

“James Conlon, in his farewell season as Music Director, conducted Bernstein’s complex score with great verve and precision. (Amazingly, Bernstein himself never conducted WSS in the theater.)  The orchestra, augmented by 7 additional violins and 1 additional bass, revealed intricate layers in this music missed by most Broadway pit bands — from the Latin rhythms that pulse through “America” to the jazz harmonies that make “Cool” so unsettling.  Under maestro Conlon’s baton, familiar songs felt newly minted.”   – Classical Voice

“Hearing Bernstein’s score played by the LA Opera Orchestra (bolstered opening night by an additional 8 musicians in the string section) under James Conlon’s fervid baton while Jerome Robbins’ original choreography (reproduced by Joshua Bergasse) mesmerically pulsates on stage, somehow preserves this West Side as a quasi-religious experience and worthwhile pilgrimage for any fans.” – Broadway World

“Whether the bass shadows the Jets’ distinct finger-snaps or the percussive section hits right at a dramatic kick, Conlon’s orchestra plays as the audience’s best friend throughout the entire two-and-a-half-hour runtime.” – USC Annenberg Media