What was wrong with the West Side Story revival?

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 10:30pm

I saw the touring production of the West Side Story revival this afternoon, and I couldn't help thinking the whole time that I didn't understand quite why the Broadway production was so widely criticized on here. Granted, I remember the "Cavenaugh is bland/Olivo can't dance it" stuff, and that obviously didn't matter with different (and very good) people on the tour, but I was curious what made people dislike the revival so much. I felt like the material spoke for itself, it was well-danced, and had some really stunning moments. Interested to hear thoughts.

Updated On: 5/8/11 at 10:30 PM

[ReggieonBway]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 10:34pm

I absolutely loved it, actually. Granted, Cavenaugh was a tad bland, but he was tolerable.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 10:34pm

Well if you didn't speak Spanish and didnt know the music, you had no clue what they were singing about for starters.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 10:34pm

Short and Sweet? It had no soul.

[ljay889]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 10:35pm

The production was much improved with the initial replacements and turning the Spanish lyrics into Spanglish. Karen Olivo blew me away every single time.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 10:36pm

The watered-down choreography definitely was a negative point for me, but my biggest complaint was honestly that the acoustics in The Palace were abysmal. We actually lost some dialogue and lyrics when sitting all the way in the balcony.

Posted: 5/8/11 at 10:39pm

Cutting the very POINT of the ballet is my only major gripe. I think--going back to the Oklahoma 1943 thread that this kinda proved the point that the original production is just so much better. Weird costumes, and a cut ballet--and I don't think anything was done to improve or make up for any of that.

There's still enough of the brilliant Robbins original there that it's a very good show. Updated On: 5/8/11 at 10:39 PM

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 10:39pm

Interesting. I know for a fact that at least a small amount of the choreography that had been watered down for Olivo has been replaced for the tour (I noticed that the "leaps" or whatever had been replaced at the end of "America"). The Anita's a terrific dancer, and demands the focus during her dance numbers, which I know is how it should be. And the Spanish was used extremely sparingly now, and, I thought, effectively.

[matineeidol2013]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 10:42pm

senseless direction, in my opinion. Laurents was TRYING to be different. the original was brilliant for a reason. sometimes, less is more.

this is simply my opinion. i LOVED the sexed-up costumes, and i thought the performances were very strong (matt hydzik was my tony and natalie cortez was my anita)

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 10:42pm

I saw it towards the end of the run and pretty much enjoyed it. Matt Hydzik was an excellent Tony. My greatest complaint was the way the ending was altered. Maria held Tony's body like a Pieta while the rest of the cast stood away from her and watched while the music played.

By this time the Spanish had mostly been replaced by English/Spanish lyrics and was inconsistent.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 10:51pm

Hated the change in the ending. I don't care if it was supposed to be more real... it didn't work. Thought the whole thing like Dramamama said lacked soul and lacked the "danger" it should have had.
Despised the fact that the Rumble was separated from the audience by the chain link fence. HAted the Spanish, HATED CAVENAUGH as Tony. completely miscast!

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 10:56pm

I know the TONYS can sometimes mean crap but the fact that the director of ROCK OF AGES got a nod over the director od WSS speaks volumes.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 11:00pm

Matt Cavenaugh was awful, for starters. His replacement, Matthew Hydzik, was only marginally better.

Ironically, the two best Tonys were the alternates- Jeremy Jordan and Matt Shingledecker (who should have had the role in the first place).

PS- I can't wait for Pal Joey to see this thread. Updated On: 5/8/11 at 11:00 PM

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 11:06pm

I saw it after only a few months of the run and the whole language thing completely threw me off. I know most of the songs, but I took french all throughout high school/college and don't know a word of spanish. Even though I knew the story, it still made it tough to follow. For others who knew very little about the show, they walked away with almost nothing. I think that was one of the worst director's choices of recent memory.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 11:10pm

I didn't mind the Spanish so much during I Feel Pretty.

But, it was a terrible, absolute complete misstep to have possibly the most critical scene/song in act 2 staged almost entirely in Spanish.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 11:12pm

I saw it twice. The first time was a week or so after the Tony Awards. I just remember seeing some poor understudies and being bored to tears by Matt Cavenaugh playing Tony. Sad when the end comes and you don't care if he died or not.

The second time I saw it was last April. I went to see it again to give it a second chance, and I was glad I did. I really enjoyed finally seeing Karen Olivo as Anita. And Jeremy Jordan was excellent. The dancing seemed to be a little tighter too. I don't know, it just seemed like a totally different show then 10 months before.

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 11:18pm

I can't wait for PJ to see this, either.

The Tony I saw was in great voice and wasn't bland at all, in my opinion. And one of the understudies, no less.

Adamgreer, do you mean A Boy Like That/I Have a Love?

[ljay889]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 11:21pm

"I Have a Love" was always English on Broadway. But changing "A Boy Like That" from complete Spanish to Spanglish was a big improvement.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 11:28pm

Adamgreer, do you mean A Boy Like That/I Have a Love?

When the show opened on Broadway, A Boy Like That was entirely in Spanish, which completely confused the portion of the audience that didn't know the lyrics, didn't speak Spanish, or hadn't seen the show before.

[EvelynOakleigh]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 11:28pm

When I saw it Jeremy Jordan was on for Tony, I thought he was terrible, I thought his voice was too weak for the role, also i had big issues with the set the stage just felt too empty to me in the opening number/all the numbers that took place in that setting. But Natalie Cortez was perfection as Anita for me, she was my far the best in the show in my opinion

[KylieS]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 11:43pm

I loved the production (I've no use for Matt Cavenaugh but then the Tony I saw was Matthew Hydzik, so that worked out) and am particularly emphatic about my belief that the Spanish lyrics for Un Hombre Asi/A Boy Like That are like a trillion times better -- more moving -- than the original ones. LMM did an amazing job with all the translations.

I don't think the complaints of "I didn't understand it," given the translation sheets in the programs, are well-founded. Idk why if people don't understand an opera they reach for a program but when it's bits of WSS they decide to shout at the director. The translation made sense as an artistic choice; it was a nod towards realism and for that reason made the experience more immersive for me. It felt very organic IMO.

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 11:45pm

I assumed that's what you meant. And I agree with Ljay that the Spanglish made all the difference (having also heard the all-Spanish version on the recording).

[east side story]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 11:46pm

Karen Olivo delivered one of the most electric performances I've ever seen. Watered down choreography or not, that woman mopped the stage with every other person in that cast. She certainly deserved her Tony Award.

But as a whole, the production just lacked a spark! The material is outstanding, minus a creaky book. But for whatever reason, it never came together for me.

And I absolutely HATED that "I Feel Pretty" was in Spanish. I did however like the use of the language in the other parts. But I also took four years of Spanish in high school, so I was able to understand probably 80% of the dialogue/lyrics. That's about 78% percent more than most of the audience could decipher.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 11:47pm

" The translation made sense as an artistic choice; it was a nod towards realism and for that reason made the experience more immersive for me. It felt very organic IMO."

It was actually a nod, or more of a "This is MY show now" from the director. And people shouldn't HAVE to be pulled out of what they're seeing on the stage to fumble in the dark through their playbill looking for a translation. What a ridiculous argument that is.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 5/8/11 at 11:57pm

^ I agree with the playbill thing. Plus, sometimes they are really hard to read in the dark.