"America" from the international tour of West Side Story...- Page 2

[StageManager2]

Posted: 6/16/09 at 3:45pm

Still, Carol Lawrence managed to get nominated in Featured Actress. I believe hers was the only acting nomination. (Maria over Anita?)

Updated On: 6/16/09 at 03:45 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/16/09 at 3:47pm

Yup, Only Carol was nominated. The 3 Broadway Marias have been nominated, though Josefina was the first nominated in the leading category. No Tony has ever been nominated, lol.
Updated On: 6/16/09 at 03:47 PM

[ulkis]

Posted: 6/16/09 at 3:59pm

Outside the broadway community may consider Rita THE Anita. But CHITA is definitely OUR Anita. Always will be.

I agree. But I think broadway actresses still don't like to be eclipsed outside the community as well. :) In any case, Chita has no reason to be jealous of Karen. (In case that sounds snarky, it's not, at ALL. I am a huge fan of Karen.)

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 6/16/09 at 4:09pm

Following is a long stream-of-consciousness kinda post:

I didn't see THE DANCER'S LIFE on Broadway, I saw it on tour so I imagine there were a few changes. The only reference Chita made to Rita Moreno was a line that went something like "when Rita Moreno got cast over me in the WEST SIDE STORY movie, I wanted to kill myself, when Rita Moreno won an Oscar for WEST SIDE STORY, I wanted to kill Rita Moreno." It was funny and there didn't seem to be any real resentment towards Moreno. In fact, I doubt there's any real bad blood between the two, as if Moreno hadn't been cast as Anita, then another actress would have.
I also doubt that Chita Rivera would resent Karen Olivo for winning a Tony. Why would she? Chita has two Tony Awards, a bunch of nods, and is considered a Broadway legend. She doesn't need Karen Olivo to lose a Tony to feel any sort of validation. I don't get why people are trying to create a drama over this when there isn't any to speak of.

On to the clips. The actress playing Anita in the "America" clip is clearly a dancer, Olivo isn't, that's not really up to discussion I think. It's obvious the woman moves like a dancer and that Olivo moves like a performer who moves to the choreography, there's a difference. Now, to say that just because of that, Olivo is not a great actress is pretty absurd. The woman playing Anita in the clip can dance, yes, but I don't think she's any better than the other girls in a way that say Debbie Allen was the clear stand out when she performed the number. And for what is worth, I think Olivo--while clearly the least adept dancer among the girls--always managed to keep the spotlight on her (I'm strictly speaking of "America" by the way, "Dance at the Gym" is another story). Olivo has the "it" factor, that is why she got cast as Anita in the first place, she's a great actress, she has a powerhouse voice, and she owns the stage in ways that the woman on the clip just doesn't. This is why Olivo won the Tony, this is why some of us think she's a great performer.
And it's funny that people are bringing up the fact that McNeely is the one to blame for Olivo's lackluster dancing. I mentioned this in my review of the show. Olivo has the ability to dance the part better, anyone who saw her in IN THE HEIGHTS channeling Rita Moreno during the night club scene knows that her dancing was anything but lackluster, I'm aware that that choreography is a lot less complicated than Robbins' but still. Karen danced that scene with a confidence that I didn't see in her when I saw her as Anita. McNeely should have done better.
Somewhere Olivo is quoting Alice Ripley right now saying: "you can kiss my sweet (Tony-winning) ass."

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 6/16/09 at 4:38pm

Rita Moreno and Chita Rivera are actually good friends, regardless of what the gossip mills have said for decades.

Not only did Rita visit Chita backstage during her visit to Chita's THE DANCER'S LIFE during its Broadway run, but they also shared the stage with Bette Midler singing "America" at Katie Couric's Benefit WEST SIDE STORY Concert several years ago. Bette sang the Rosalia sections of the song.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 6/16/09 at 4:57pm

It's obvious the woman moves like a dancer and that Olivo moves like a performer who moves to the choreography, there's a difference. Now, to say that just because of that, Olivo is not a great actress is pretty absurd.

Did I say that? No. I never said her inability to dance the part made her a bad actress. I just said that she can't dance, plain and simple. I just said I think it's a matter of opinion that her entire performance justifies her Tony. I LOVE Karen. I thought she was the standout in ITH, and I wanted to love her here. I just didn't.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 6/16/09 at 5:43pm

I'm no expert on the choreography, but that looked amateurish and less than impressive. Honestly, the Broadway choreography was more enjoyable to watch than that mess.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 6/16/09 at 6:16pm

... the choreography is the same...

Though they took some of the leaps and turns out of the Broadway choreography so that Karen could do it. But everything else is the same.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 6/16/09 at 7:18pm

If that what McNeely made Karen look like, it's no wonder they took out the leaps, those are the most awkward leaps I have seen. I don't know if it's the dancers or the way that McNeely told them to go about it but they are incredibly awkward and anti-climatic, and Lana Gordon seemed to be out of sync with the music, especially at the end when she strikes the final pose.

[vassey]

Posted: 6/16/09 at 7:25pm

I've literally just come back from seeing the international tour. And the dancing seemed just plain lazy.. everyone just seemed to be going through the motions of moving rather than 'dancing'. It did not stun me as I thought that it should have done. Shame

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/16/09 at 7:30pm

" it's no wonder they took out the leaps, those are the most awkward leaps I have seen."


I completely agree. When Allen and d'Amboise did the leaps, it was completely thrilling. The leaps here are extremely awkward. I rather see Karen's turns than the leaps awkwardly taught by McKneely.
Updated On: 6/16/09 at 07:30 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 12:28am

I don't know where he is. But I actually would like PalJoey's opinion on the clip I posted.

I am really starting to believe McKneely (not the performers) is the problem, and it seems others agree.
Updated On: 6/17/09 at 12:28 AM

[btsing]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 10:35am

Question for everybody....Didn't the new international tour just open on the 16th in France? I don't think these are clips of the current production. McKneely has been staging international tours for a couple of years now. Even that link to the WSS uk website dates say 2008. All that being said, I'm sure all the comments about mckneely's staging remain true.
International tour article

[Scripps2]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 12:48pm

"I don't think these are clips of the current production."

The link I posted is definitely of the current UK tour, which is also being marketed as the international tour: it contains the same cast members that I saw a couple of weeks ago.

"Even that link to the WSS uk website dates say 2008."

No it doesn't. It says "on sale Aug 08" - if you follow the links to the respective theatres you'll be able to see that they are 2009. If you're clever you'll be able to work out where I saw it two weeks ago. No prizes though - not even a tub of ice cream at the interval!
Updated On: 6/17/09 at 12:48 PM

[alightinthedark23]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 4:39pm

Wow those outfits look like they are headed out for a girls night out in some random club. Anita is not singing but rather screaming. The Broadway WSS singers are 50 times better than this. Is it me or are the dance routines much faster than the current 'America'?

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 4:59pm

Karen Olivo is the greatest dancer to grace the Broadway stage since Judy Kuhn.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 5:08pm

^Hahahaha. That made me laugh.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 6:00pm

Okay. PalJoey weighing in. (Sorry I was busy at WORK today or I would have weighed in sooner. You know, "work"? It's that thing we do when we're not posting on BroadwayWorld.)

I agree with BrodyFosse that both McNeely versions of "America" lacked the master's touch.

But I want to make it clear, as I have said over and over again, that the "master" who created "America" was NOT Jerome Robbins. It was Peter Gennaro.

As I've mentioned in other threads, Gennaro signed an agreement with Robbins under which he would receive a fee, royalties and first-class transportation for himself and Mrs Gennaro, but Jerome Robbins would retain ALL rights to Gennaro's work, including the copyright. Gennaro also promised never to discuss the extent of his work on West Side. Chita Rivera finally broke the silence in A Dancer's Life and paid tribute to Gennaro's work.

Jerome Robbins's involvement with "America" was basically discussing the shape of the number with Peter and insisting that it be a number for Anita and the girls only...based, I think, on his instinct that the male-heavy show needed a number that featured the girls (it is, after all, a musical) and that the character of Anita would score stronger with a number in which she was backed by the girls. (Not outshone by them, which happens in the movie--and which happens with Olivo.)

Gennaro was the one with the background in Latin dances: his wiry little body pulsed with rhumbas and sambas and mambos and merengues. Robbins's body did not move like that--and Jerry Robbins knew that. Which is why Robbins brought Gennaro in to do America and the Shark portion of Dance at the Gym.

Robbins would leave the rehearsal room during rehearsals for the 1980 revival for "America" and the Shark mambo and leave Gennaro and Lee Theodore to re-stage the dances. Tom Abbott, Robbins's ballet master from the New York City ballet, would re-stage the ballet and the Rumble and the Prologue and the Jets mambo, but he would let Lee and Peter work the Latin moves. His body didn't move that way either.

But what put Debbie Allen over the top was the real touch of the REAL master: the afternoon Lee Theodore and Peter Gennaro brought Chita in to work with Debbie--a story I tell in the thread below.

I still maintain that if Joey McNeely had brought Chita and Debbie in for ONE AFTERNOON with Karen, we would be seeing an entirely different Anita.


BLT III - clip from 1980 WEST SIDE STORY Revival

Updated On: 6/17/09 at 06:00 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 6:11pm

Actually, this is the thread with the Chita/Debbie story:
WANTED: Reports From the 2007 GYPSY OF THE YEAR BC/EFA Production

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 6:17pm

Thanks, PJ! I honestly do appreciate your insight. Is there any other choreographer that could reproduce the original choreography besides McKneely? He really doesn't seem great at it.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 6:29pm

There's a lot of controversy about McNeely among the dance captains and choreographers who have been trained to reproduce Robbins's work. Like any other group of people who work in the theater, they can be petty and backbiting and jealous of each other, but you can imagine that there are some who resent the assignments he's gotten and what he's done with them? Could any of them have done this better? We'll never know--and any of them would have had to deal with Arthur's determination to minimize the dance elements of the show to heighten his own contribution.

I'm not a dancer, but I wonder if maybe Joey McNeely's body is not built to dance "America" or the Shark mambo, the way Jerry Robbin's and Tommy Abbott's bodies were not.

I remember the dance captain on the 1980 revival, a beautiful former ballet dancer named Richard Caceres. He restaged the dances for the European tour that followed the 1980 revival and died, I believe, during the Plague Years.

He danced "America" better than Debbie--and I think she might even agree. ;-}

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 6:44pm

PJ, was Gennaro involved in JEROME ROBBINS' BROADWAY as well? Was this how they rehearsed the "America" number and the Sharks Mambo in that show? I find that story (as your stories tend to be) incredibly fascinating.
Wasn't Jerry Mitchell attached to a WEST SIDE STORY revival proposed in the early/mid 00's? I wonder what kind of job he would have done with it. McNeely is just unable to really bring in the bite it needs. I don't blame the lackluster of "America" in this revival on Karen's lack of dancing abilities alone. The "it" factor is lacking in all of the dancing in this production, even when the choreography is danced by real professional dancers. I thought the only time the choreography sore was when Pamela Otterson was on stage, in fact, I think she made the choreography sorts in ways she wasn't meant to (I'm referring to the Dance at the Gym when she completely outshines Karen...though during the Tony performance it was obvious that Karen has gained A LOT more confidence in her dancing and no longer gets lost in the hoopla like she did during the previews). Otherwise, McNeely did a poor job of re-creating the electricity of Robbins' and Gennaro's work.
Maybe Laurents, in his apparent desire to bring out the book and downplay the dancing, picked the one choreographer who would be able to do just that.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 6:48pm

Apparently the National Theatre wanted the rights to the 50th anniversary production but were refused on the grounds of changes they wanted to make.

[BadIdeaBear]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 7:04pm

Another great clip from the WSS Broadway touring production

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21r7cXSt9L0

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/17/09 at 7:07pm

^ Sorry, I think that is just as bas as the clip I posted. The more I see from the UK tour, the more I appreciate our revival.