Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival- Page 2

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#25

Posted: 12/17/07 at 10:12pm

No, but Patti is.
Riedel is the one who mentioned Channing on his column, I much preferred the other rumored names: Bernadette Peters and Donna Murphy (Murphy did a reading when the Weisslers were attached to the revival).

"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"

[ljay889]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#26

Posted: 12/17/07 at 10:14pm

I heard from a casting director that they want the Puerto Ricans to speak Spanish--even the songs.



- BUT technically wouldn't that be changing the text. A translation won't be word for word.

[gypsy4]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#27

Posted: 12/17/07 at 10:16pm

are you saying the benadette might be playing rose again.

[ljay889]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#28

Posted: 12/17/07 at 10:18pm

Benadetae wil b roze 4 matinaes an patty wil b roze 4 eveningz u didnt no dat duh

[jbdc]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#29

Posted: 12/17/07 at 10:19pm

I don't think Arthur pays much attention to technicalities.
But who's gonna translate America?

Do you think he got the idea from "Say It Somehow" as he watched Light in the Piazza?
Updated On: 12/17/07 at 10:19 PM

[neddyfrank2]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#30

Posted: 12/17/07 at 10:20pm

Cyndi Lauper was also attached.

[HeyMrMusic]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#31

Posted: 12/17/07 at 10:32pm

I thought he said somewhere that he wouldn't be changing a word of the text. Am I making that up? If they were to translate, that would be changing the text.

Then again, he freaking wrote the thing so he can do whatever he wants with it.

~Steven

[ljay889]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#32

Posted: 12/17/07 at 10:38pm

He didn't write the lyrics though, so wouldn't they need Sondheim's permission to translate his lyrics?

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#33

Posted: 12/17/07 at 10:49pm

I don't think translations are part of "changing the text," isn't that what makes all the international productions legal and endorsed by the creative team of the shows?
I recently saw a production of WEST SIDE STORY where Maria, Bernardo, and Anita would say things in Spanish and then repeat the same thing in English. It got annoying. If they were gonna try to be realistic about the language (realistically speaking Bernardo and Maria would have spoken to each other in Spanish, not English), then don't have them repeat the same exact line in English.
Either way I highly doubt they will have the Puerto Ricans speak in Spanish, that's too risky for a Broadway audience that is mostly composed of upper-class white people.

"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"

[PalJoey]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#34

Posted: 12/17/07 at 11:19pm

The words that need to be changed are not the Sharks' dialogue. It's the Jets' dialogue that rings so false nowadays. But Arthur has said over and over again that he will never rewrite a WORD of the lousy Jets' dialogue: "Sperm to worm!" "Womb to tomb!"

Also, he has also said that he will NEVER switch Cool and Krupke, the way they did in the film (which works MUCH better than they way they are in the stage version), and he will NEVER leave the Shark boys on stage for the film version of America.

So if those are the things everyone agrees would make the stage version better, and those are the things he has vowed NEVER to do, what's left?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#35

Posted: 12/17/07 at 11:30pm

I thought everybody thought like that. WSS is always treated as though it's sacrosanct.

I don't care if they switch Cool and Krupke. I've always thought they worked fine the way they were.

I agree about the the womb to tomb thing. They should do like in the movie and say birth to earth.
Updated On: 12/17/07 at 11:30 PM

[freeadmission]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#35

Posted: 12/17/07 at 11:38pm

I like "womb to tomb" etc. because it sounds like a young kid wanting to be all "bad" and cool, which is also why Cool and Krupke should remain as the originally were.

artistic dominion

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#36

Posted: 12/17/07 at 11:47pm

I saw a college production once where Doc was played by a lady. She did a very heavy Yiddish accent. It was as bizarre as it sounds.

[jewishboy]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#37

Posted: 12/17/07 at 11:55pm

I would love to see the men be in "America." But, when it comes to “Officer Krupke" and "Cool" I think it works better on stage. This is because after Riff is killed it is frightening for the audience to see his best friends dancing around, yet it explains why they are doing the number (the characters themselves need the relief, or don't want to think about Riff maybe?).

[ljay889]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#38

Posted: 12/18/07 at 12:03am

The men DON'T belong in AMERICA. It kills the moment with them in it.

[PalJoey]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#39

Posted: 12/18/07 at 12:14am

the characters themselves need the relief, or don't want to think about Riff maybe?

Yes, the characters need the relief--which is precisely why they NEED to sing--and dance!--"Cool" not do old burlesque schtick like "Krupke." Krupke belongs in the first drugstore scene, when the stakes are so much lower.

And the boys in America just open up the choreography and make it MORE about the universal experience of being in America.

(And that is spoken by someone who learned to DO the girls choreography 27 years ago--and can still do it! Well, sort of--and after 4 or 5 vodkas...)

I love each and every moment of the stage production, but the movie structure is more sophisticated.

The big question is: Will Arthur keep the streamers going into the Dance at the Gym? The timing of those streamers, for me, was the genius of Jerome Robbins's stagecraft.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#40

Posted: 12/18/07 at 12:14am

I disagree. When you add the men to "America" then a new layer is added regarding sexual politics in Latino culture. Being Hispanic myself, I find it very interesting because with the men v. women "America," you get how liberating it is for these women to be in the U.S. Perhaps this is not what the authors wanted to go for but I find it makes the number quite more complex than when the girls sing it to Rosalia.

"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"

[jewishboy]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#41

Posted: 12/18/07 at 12:27am

Has Laurents, Sondheim, Bernstein, Genero, or Robbins commented on the placing of "Cool" and "Krupke"? I think I read somewhere that Sondheim prefers the way the songs are done in the movie, but I might be thinking about "America."

[PalJoey]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#42

Posted: 12/18/07 at 12:34am

I bow to your greater knowledge of and insight into Hispanic culture, being, as you say, Hispanic yourself.

Being Jewish myself, I could claim an innate racial memory of how musicals should be written, since those laws were actually written down by God on the first tablets Moses brought down from Mount Sinai: THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF HOW TO WRITE A MUSICAL.

These were the commandments that Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein followed when they wrote Oklahoma and Carousel but then, you will remember, Moses broke those first tablets.

That was when those commandments about writing musicals were lost, and that is how it came to pass that the Jews delivered unto us Allegro and Pipe Dream and Flower Drum Song.

It doesn't matter what we think, Arthur Laurents will do what he wants.

Updated On: 12/18/07 at 12:34 AM

[CurtainPullDowner]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#43

Posted: 12/18/07 at 12:35am

I predict this WSS revival will not happen.

[PalJoey]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#44

Posted: 12/18/07 at 12:35am

This is the one and only time that the Downer and I will ever agree.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#45

Posted: 12/18/07 at 12:36am

Nuts to guts!

[ljay889]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#46

Posted: 12/18/07 at 12:39am

I predict this WSS revival will not happen.

- Didn't you also predict Arthur directing Patti at City Center would never happen either..even after it was announced?

Or am I thinking of someone else?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#47

Posted: 12/18/07 at 12:40am

Balls to Dolls!

[Perfectly Marvelous]

re: Laurents confirms GYPSY for St. James, WEST SIDE STORY B'way Revival#48

Posted: 12/18/07 at 12:46am

I saw a college production once where Doc was played by a lady. She did a very heavy Yiddish accent. It was as bizarre as it sounds.

I was Doc in my high school's production, minus the heavy Yiddish accent. If memory serves me correctly, the directing team had me use a typical "New York Jew" accent. There were certain lines that came off a tad over pronounced ("buenas noches" was one such phrase that got ridiculously exaggarated more and more as performances went on).

"I am and always will be the optimist. The hoper of far-flung hopes and dreamer of improbable dreams." - Doctor Who

"Yes, the brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over, men recognize that the human race has been harshly treated but it has moved forward." - Les Miserables

Updated On: 12/18/07 at 12:46 AM