Anyone seeing WEST SIDE STORY in D.C. today?

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 9:24am

It's the first preview...break a leg to the cast and crew! Can't wait for it to come to New York!!

[broadwayfan7]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 9:31am

Break a leg West Side Story!

[Pianolin717]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 10:43am

if they have any student tickets tomorrow me and my friend are going to go.. so they better have them!!!

[philcrosby]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 11:26am

Seeing it (and Grey Gardens) this Saturday!

[ljay889]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 8:18pm

I cannot wait for the reviews!

[KChenowethfan]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 10:00pm

I am seeing it on Wednesday!

[Drunk Chita Rivera]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 10:06pm

Arg! I'm so jealous of everyone seeing it today and this week. I'm gonna try and go between Chrismas and New Years. I'll be in Baltimore then so I will try and get into DC, hoping I get tickets, **WINK WINK GRANDMA! WINK WINK**

[mywonderwa11]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 10:17pm

I'm seeing it on December 30th, dead center front mezzanine...I can't wait!

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 11:08pm

I hope we get some reviews soon!

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 11:22pm

Ugh, I didn't know Grey Gardens was playing the DC area! I wish I had know, I would have gotten tickets! Is there a Sunday matinee?

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 11:24pm

http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?organ_val=2581&event_val=09M2&schedule=list

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 11:29pm

RB86, I think there might be two performances of Grey Gardens on Sunday.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 11:33pm

Totally thought that it was playing in Baltimore. Anyone from the DC area know if Studio Theater offers student tickets? Also, I heard from someone that DC has some site or something similar to TKTS which offers half/price tickets? True?

Thanks, Dottie. I want to go, and I realized they're doing Blackbird too! Ugh, I'd love to see them both, but I'd have to pick Grey Gardens over the Blackbird, since I know it's being made into a movie and whatnot.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 11:35pm

RentBoy, you do know that the majority of the questions you ask on here can be found in a simple Google search, right?

[ljay889]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 11:37pm

First review/thoughts


http://talkinbroadway.com/allthatchat/d.php?id=1662165

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 11:44pm

RB86, DC's version of TKTS is ticketplace.org. Though I haven't seen Grey Gardens listed.

[Magica]

Posted: 12/15/08 at 11:45pm

seeing it thursday

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 12:40am

Bobby, what is google?

[mywonderwa11]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 12:51am

I don't know how I feel about these projections...

[bethnor]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 1:03am

here is info on discounted tickets:

http://www.nationaltheatre.org/tickets/halfprice.htm

if any of you are interested in seeing this at the national theatre, avoid seats on the left or right orchestra numbered in the 20s. you'll see a lot of performer backs.

i was seated behind Someone With a Big Head (tm), and it's left me with a terrible headache (after craning my head to see around it), so i'll keep it brief.

the spanish is seamless and elevates the material. the effect may be lessened if you are a native speaker. the surtitles need work. the way they are presented it tends to draw your eye away from the performers. you are better off ignoring them. you can get a gist of what's going on anyway, the audience seemed to. kudos to lin-manuel miranda--it's clear he didn't just "translate directly to spanish." i hope that makes sense.

sadly the (inaccurate) vernacular drags the material down. the play would be improved 1000x if laurents would just dump it. to their credit, the actors do what they can to downplay it.

josefina is worth the price of admissions. her voice soars and she summons the innocence of maria. i believed she was 13-14. matt was at his most believable whenever he was with her.

the zodiac thingie is very unobtrusive so don't worry about it.

the house was packed, > 95%, but dc isn't hurt much by the economic problems (basically the government is hiring lots of folks to get us out of this mess). hearty applause after each number. they loved karen and josefina especially.

[ljay889]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 1:06am

How was Karen's dancing?
Did KRUPKE end with "Offficer Krupke, f*ck you!" ?

Updated On: 12/16/08 at 01:06 AM

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 1:10am

How were the rest of the sets? How'd the orchestra sound? Was there a show curtain?

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 1:28am

What is it with people here and curtains? I don't get how that's an essential detail at all.

Anyway, I'm interested to hear more reviews! It sounds like it's going to be a really nice production.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 1:39am

Love it! All these posts and not ONE single review of the show. One non-detailed and vague opinion and hords of pointless rants.

Ugh!

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 12/16/08 at 2:32am

I got back awhile ago. I don't really do reviews, so I'm just going to babble on aimlessly about stuff as I remember it, if that's ok.

To start off, I Feel Pretty and A Boy Like That/I Have a Love are entirely in Spanish. There are screens with subtitles on either side of the stage. But, as far as my (albeit limited) Spanish skills could tell, the lyrics weren't directly translated. In the Post article, Laurents said Sondheim wanted to maintain the rhyming, so in I Have a Love especially, they sacrificed the literal translation for that. Other than those two songs, the Sharks' lines in the Tonight Quintet are also in Spanish, but those aren't subtitled. I found it best to ignore the song's subtitles anyway; I know the lyrics and didn't like to have to pull my eyes off the action stage just to read them. Most of the Sharks' conversations are in Spanish, and most of that is subtitled. Basic exchanges were not subtitled, but occasionally the subtitles were late picking up, so it might still be a work in progress. During the dance at the gym, Glad Hand attempted to translate every line of his speech into Spanish and butchered it. I don't know whether it was amusing or sad when I realized most of the audience probably understood his "Spanish" moreso than the actual Spanish.

What I thought was interesting was that the translations (presumably all Lin-Manuel Miranda) weren't credited at all in the playbill. It would be one thing if it were all literal dialogue translations- Babelfish could do that- but since lyrics were altered, I thought it was odd there was no mention at all of the efforts.

Anyway, since that information alone will cause chaos, I suppose no one will pay attention to the rest of what I say.

At the beginning of the show, a DC councilman gave a speech, followed by what appeared to be a receptionist or temp or intern from the mayor's office who mumbled through a proclamation declaring it West Side Story Day in DC. Alex Bernstein came out after her and gave a speech as well, which made the mayor's gesture look all the more awkward in comparison.

Matt and Josefina were really good together. My few West Side Story experiences have had pretty lame Tony/Maria pairings (movie included), which tended to put a damper on the story. She's definitely the better singer, so I can see what the ATC poster meant by saying he was weak- in a direct comparison to her, yes, but not bad.

Karen was really great- I called three friends at intermission to gush about her performance. Anita is my favorite character, but I had no expectations about how Karen would do. America definitely got the biggest audience reaction and she also got the most applause at the curtain. She was really fun and sassy without being a caricature, so the emotional shift in the second act didn't seem as forced and out of place, just a natural progression of the character (clearly I've seen too many bad community theatre productions). And if anyone was worried about her dancing- don't be.

Curtis Holbrook was almost too good as Action. It was kind of scary at times, like he was on the verge of snapping and tearing someone's head off. As a girl, it was kind of discomforting and too real at times, heh.

I'm trying to keep this positive; there are more than enough people who tear it to shreds and I don't want to contribute to that, because I did love it. One thing that stuck out to me were some of the costumes. During the dance at the gym, it was hard to tell what time period it was supposed to be. I don't think the show has to have a set date, but some of the costumes were rather era-specific. The dresses the Jets girls wore hinted at mod, but the Sharks girls were in styles very similar to the originals. There was a Shark wearing a purple Members Only jacket and Bernardo's purple and pink suit was very Color Me Badd, but many of the Jets were in modern jeans and A-Rab is wearing this odd orange striped vest that makes him look like a circus popcorn vendor. If they wanted to make it seem "timeless", they could have picked much more neutral styles, because to me it just seemed rather disjointed.

Overall, I loved it. I will totally admit I'm biased. I've loved West Side Story since I was little, so the fact that I finally saw a professional production onstage would have been enough for me, but I really like what they've done to change it. As we've seen since this was announced, some people are going to go in hating it because of the added Spanish, but that's reflecting a much deeper issue within themselves than mere loyalty to Sondheim's lyrics. If you complain about having to press one for English, you're probably better off not seeing this production. Otherwise, I think (I hope) most people will embrace the changes. This is the same show people fell in love with, and manages to be innovative and distinctive while still keeping the orchestra in the pit.

Updated On: 12/16/08 at 02:32 AM