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I also just saw this, and think it sounds like the best updating of an old show I can remember. The use of Spanish is brilliant. I like what Laurents said about the movie too, I agree it was mostly 'horribly acted', and it's one of the old ones I never watch again--has a top-heavy quality on top of the bad acting; the best part is the overture. It has not become better over time, but considerably worse.

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I also just saw this, and think it sounds like the best updating of an old show I can remember. The use of Spanish is brilliant. I like what Laurents said about the movie too, I agree it was mostly 'horribly acted', and it's one of the old ones I never watch again--has a top-heavy quality on top of the bad acting; the best part is the overture. It has not become better over time, but considerably worse.

Whenever I hear the overture, I have to stop whatever I am doing and listen. I get completely overcome with emotion. When I watch the movie (use to be a favorite past time with me and my sons) we would listen to the overture, watch the first scene in the playground and fast forward to the dance at the gym. Afterwards, we would just fast forward to our favorite musical numbers.

I saw the revival in thee 80s and it was BORING and a big disappointment.

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The movie gets off to an excellent start and then goes downhill, but it's not awful, just inflated, and some of the flaws were related to the original. "America" comes off well. Natalie Wood tends to get hammered and indeed she is not at her best but considering the ingenues available at the time, they could have done a lot worse. Jerome Robbins liked her; they became very close friends. Chakiris, Moreno, and Tamblyn, are good, too. The real weak link is the flaccid Richard Beymer, for my money. Also, Wood did not care for him and boy, does it ever show.

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I saw the revival in thee 80s and it was BORING and a big disappointment.
Except for Debbie Allen's Anita, right? She was the equivalent in that production of Russ Tamblyn in the film -- the flesh and blood of the cast.

Thanks for the link to the Opening Night review, printscess!

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Tamblyn was great.

Ray also found and posted the link, independently, and here's his post:

Did you all see this NY Times story about the upcoming bilingual West Side Story? The concept sounds great, and I think it's wonderful that it's an alteration dreamed up by one of the remaining original creators.

Yes, it is good that Laurents is still around and interested in trying new things. My only cavil would be that WSS has nothing to do with actual street kids of any kind, never has and never will. Sure, add Spanish if you want, as long as the audience can follow without supertitles, but it's not going to add verismo to something that was never verismo to begin with. (Part of what's wrong with the movie version is a failure to understand this.)

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Yes, it is good that Laurents is still around and interested in trying new things. My only cavil would be that WSS has nothing to do with actual street kids of any kind, never has and never will. Sure, add Spanish if you want, as long as the audience can follow without supertitles, but it's not going to add verismo to something that was never verismo to begin with. (Part of what's wrong with the movie version is a failure to understand this.)

True enough--and I can see that an overzealous desire to impart "gritty realism" might be a potential danger to this production. Let's hope they can still play it cool...

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Yes, it is good that Laurents is still around and interested in trying new things. My only cavil would be that WSS has nothing to do with actual street kids of any kind, never has and never will. Sure, add Spanish if you want, as long as the audience can follow without supertitles, but it's not going to add verismo to something that was never verismo to begin with. (Part of what's wrong with the movie version is a failure to understand this.)

Good point. To use an extreme example, I always get a chuckle at Maria's line in I Feel Pretty : "It's alarming how charming I feel". Not exactly a natural phrase for a teenage girl from ANY background. ( I hope I got the quote right, it's from memory and it's at least something like that)

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To use an extreme example, I always get a chuckle at Maria's line in I Feel Pretty : "It's alarming how charming I feel". Not exactly a natural phrase for a teenage girl from ANY background. ( I hope I got the quote right, it's from memory and it's at least something like that)

Nothing is real verismo or 'natural' in musical comedy, operetta, or opera. Anyway, Bernstein's first inspiration, if I recall correctly over many years from the old David Ewen book, was upon driving through certain slum areas of New York. Insofar as it is possible for a musical to be about street kids, West Side Story is about street kids (“You don’t treat these kids as little darlings, but as what they are,” he said. “They’re all killers, Jets and Sharks"), if not, then what is it about? " Actors getting gigs in shows? Yes, it's about that too. But 'Romeo and Juliet' was also not really about 'real teenagers falling in love and hiding in plain sight'. And West Side Story is also not about Romeo and Juliet, even if it is derived from it. Gypsy's Mazeppa, Electra and Tessie Tura are also no longer real strippers. The 'verismo' shots of New York in the Overture of the film and the Jets finger-snapping to Jet Song are the best parts of the film, and even though Beymer is not up to Larry Kert level for 'Something's Comin'', the song works about a romanticized New York City, and he does that one well. Actually, that 'romantic New York City' is a real thing, and has long existed. Bernstein was simply the best at putting it into this form, as he also did in a lighter way with 'On the Town'. Not that they couldn't ruin it, but with Laurents working on it, it's unlikely. Although he loves the current production of 'Gypsy' more than some of the rest of us do, it is still very fine. He doesn't want to put makeup on too light-skinned a Maria, he wants a Latina Maria who will have the experience in her blood. and this is not too demanding on an audience; that, and using some easy Spanish is not moving too far from what he knows the show should be.

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Nothing is real verismo or 'natural' in musical comedy, operetta, or opera

True, but not quite to my point. It’s been noted above that the opening sequence of the “West Side Story” film is probably the highlight. It takes place on real streets, yes, but it’s stylized and the dance is not presented naturalistically. Later on things get confused – you can tell by the staging of the deaths of Riff and Bernardo that the director, Robert Wise, isn’t sure how to go, and the scene falls between the two stools. WSS really has nothing to say about street kids or ethnic relations, and decorating it with emblems of social commentary it can’t carry is unhelpful IMO.

To use an extreme example, I always get a chuckle at Maria's line in I Feel Pretty : "It's alarming how charming I feel". Not exactly a natural phrase for a teenage girl from ANY background. ( I hope I got the quote right, it's from memory and it's at least something like that)

Sondheim hates the lyric to that song. In fact, I have the impression that every time WSS comes up in an interview he says something like “I HATE that lyric.”

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WSS really has nothing to say about street kids or ethnic relations, and decorating it with emblems of social commentary it can’t carry is unhelpful IMO.

'And every Puerto Rican's..a lousy chicken...' may not be profound, but that, as well as 'Gee Officer Krupke' defines them as gangs with an enemy. There really isn't anything to say about street kids so much as they just are street kids and it's between slum white kids and Puerto Rican gangs. My idea is that it's less social commentary, than ethnic authenticity that Laurents wants. If they are Puerto Ricans, it will not hurt to have someone Hispanic doing it, although I concede they are never as impressive as the Bloods and the Crips of Compton and Long Beach.

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Sondheim hates the lyric to that song. In fact, I have the impression that every time WSS comes up in an interview he says something like “I HATE that lyric.”

He constantly uses the "I Feel Pretty" lyric as an illustration of his immaturity as a young writer... doing something flashy instead of something true to character.

The other lyric that sometimes gets brought up sometimes is from "Tonight:" "Today the world was just an address/A place for me to live in/No better than all right..." Bernstein had started writing lyrics for WSS before Sondheim was brought onto the project, and most of those lyrics ended up being scuttled. The "address" lyric was kept in all its awkward glory because Bernstein was just so gosh-darned proud of it.

The best lyrics in WSS are probably the ones to "Something's Coming" which was one of the last written, when the team realized that Tony didn't have anything introducing his character until "Maria" which really doesn't say much about Tony himself. Great meaty lyrics that set a character without overly drawing attention to themselves. When the Hollywood Bowl did it's Sondheim celebration a couple of years ago, I think this was the first song of the evening.

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Great meaty lyrics that set a character without overly drawing attention to themselves. When the Hollywood Bowl did it's Sondheim celebration a couple of years ago, I think this was the first song of the evening.

“Something’s Coming” is my favorite song from the score, which in general I find rather derivative (although “Maria” is my secret vice, one of them, anyway).

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AmandaNYC posted an update for us in the Other Arts forum, which I copy and paste here:

Has anyone seen the new DC production that's headed for B'way? There are major changes, and from what I have read elsewhere, the changes are getting mixed reviews. The choreography, of course, seems to be universally praised...

-amanda

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A post from bart:

Here's the Link to the National Theater's web page devoted to the production:

http://nationaltheatre.org/mainstage%5Cwest_side_story.htm

Laurents is quoted as saying:

“This show will be radically different from any other production of WEST SIDE STORY ever done. The musical theatre and cultural conventions of 1957 made it next to impossible for the characters to have authenticity. Every member of both gangs was always a potential killer even then. Now they actually will be. Only Tony and Maria try to live in a different world,” said Arthur Laurents, who was recently nominated for a 2008 Tony Award for his direction of GYPSY, also one of his librettos.

Laurents' point sounds persuasive. Has anyone seen this in Washington?

Here's something from the Washington Post, with photos:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...9010803931.html

:flowers: I didn't know the following, also taken from the web page:

The first performances of this musical anywhere in the world

were at the National Theatre August 19 through September 7, 1957

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I'm a HUGE WSS fan--Broadway musicals, especially those involving Sondheim are probably my frist love, and I'm really mixed about this production.

I admit, I'm a purest. Just like the Sleeping Beauty I love msot is the Mariinsky's recreation, for musicals I often think the original production is best. However, it's true that WSS has been around a dozen times in recreations of its original designs and direction--I saw both a N American tour in the mid 90s and a London production in 2000, so it's probably due to get a new production. But I'm much more mixed on Laurents, the book's author, directing it.

Laurents just did a great job doing his revival of Gypsy (another collaboration between him, Jerome Robbins and Sondheim originally) but I feel that's a different show. Sondheim has said that what makes West Side Story so revolutionary is how Robbins directed it--not just the dance but having each scene flow, like a dance, from scene to scene and Bernstein's music. The story he feels is pretty basic. Laurents has (from reading his memoirs) always felt that his role in the production wasn't appreciated. He also fought with Robbins a LOT, particularly for the last Broadway revival in 1980, when he felt Robbins cast the male dancers too "fey".

I know in DC the dream ballet, a fave moment of mine and something I miss not bein gin the film, was cut by Laurents by a whole half. I find that upsetting and indicative of the way Laurents is approaching this, a way that doesn't make sense to me. Making it less stylized and dance based, and more "real" doesn't work for me. But I guess I'll have to wait till I get to see it. (Similarly Anita's choreography has been simplified but that's due to the performer). However I do think the idea to do some spanish lyrics and dialogue is intriguing.

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The revival is in previews on Broadway. I have a friend who has seen it twice now (both times through the 25 dollar lottery system--worth checking out) and he says it needs tightening but he loves the use of Spanish and most of the cast. One complaint that I thought people on here would like to discuss--Arthur Laurents seems to have gotten his final revenge on Jerry Robbins--the Somewhere Dream Ballet has been cut so that the entire final "Nightmare" sequence is missing. (!!)

It's true that when Jerry did Jerome Robbins' Broadway during the WSS suite he cut the nightmare as well--but that was for a show that was merely highlights from hsi work--not a dramatic piece. With the Nightmare cut from the ballet in the actual show it makes the whoel Dream Ballet seem like a uotpian ideal--there's no dramatic tension and when the ballet fades away and we see Tony and Mria in bed clutching each other in fear there's now no reason for it. I'm *really* hoping this is one of the things that might be put back in by the opening March 19. (The ending of the piece is also quite different from Jerry's--no procession, but that doesn't bother me as much)

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Last night I went to see West Side Story now in previews at the Palace Theater in NYC.

In a word: WOW. If you live in NYC or are planning on visiting, get thee to the box office ASAP.

It is certainly not the WSS from the 50's, (I was too young to see it in the theater) 60's (movie version - I have that one memorized) or 80's (I went to that disappointing one on Broadway). This revision hits your right between the eyeballs. The opening sequence in the playground packs an emotional wallop, most in part because how the play opens. I will not give that delicious tid bit away. As I sat there I wondered how Jerome Robbins would have reacted to some of the changes, however slight were made. My sons and I had philosophical discussion on Robbins after the show. Since Arthur Laurents directed it, I am sure Robbins would have relented. I for one approved. I wonder if the Robbins Foundation had to approve the changes? I know for sure no one changes a hand movement from a Balanchine ballet.

Most of the changes were recognizable to me, as I have memorized the choreography, dialog and songs from the movie.

I was crying from the moment the curtain raised, during every dance number and until the curtain came down. Chills ran down my body during the opening number, the dance at the gym and during "cool".

I half expected the Riff and other members of the Sharks to sing slightly off key as they did in the movie, but this is Broadway and nothing was off key.

Mixing Spanish with the English worked. For anyone who has lived under a rock and is not familiar with the songs and dialog from WSS, I was certain that they would be able to follow the thread.

It was wonderful that I knew a Jet and a Shark and meeting them at the stage door was a treat.

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I know for sure no one changes a hand movement from a Balanchine ballet.

Thanks for the review, I am going next week.

In Re Mr. B he was never as detail oriented as Jerry R. Robbins would have several versions & pick at things until he had the exact thing he wanted and then demanded it. Mr. B sometimes changed things for dancers. I know that when people stage Balanchine ballet they will allow some freedom if it is within the style and intent.

Thanks again for the review. I hope to post after I see it.

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