Laurents to Direct Bway WEST SIDE STORY Revival — Page 3

I have lost all respect and admiration for Jerry Mitchell after sitting through Legally Blonde. If he were to direct this show, the Jets would be in pink, the Sharks would be in teal, and the Mambo would be a rethinking of Bend and Snap.
Arthur Laurents is the best man for the job and I cannot wait to see what he does with this show. It needs to be back!

I agree about Arthur Laurents. When he directs the words he wrote, like he has done with Gypsy, he takes the actors to levels other directors can't take them to. I'd love to see him get a crack at West Side Story.

Don't they HAVE to do the Robbins choreography anyway?

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WW, to answer your question-
Yeah, you're right. They do.

I've never seen a live production of West Side Story, which is quite possibly my favorite musical. Now to hear that it might be on Broadway and directed by Laurents... it's almost too good to be true!

~Steven

Ali Ewoldt is good, but there are better sopranos out there to play María.

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Yes, everyone who is wishing they'll do something different in terms of choreography is in for a disappointment since any major revival of WEST SIDE STORY is obligated to use the Jerry Robbins and Peter Gennaro choreography.
More than casting age-appropriate actors I hope that they cast actual Latinos in the main Shark roles (Maria, Bernardo, Anita), that'd be ground-breaking enough to get me to see the show. More Mandy Gonzales, Natalie Cortez, and Natascia Diaz less Janine LaManna, Jason Tam, Ali Elwodt.

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Updated On: 7/27/07 at 06:17 PM

I'd LOVE to see Krysta Rodriguez (formerly from SA, now in ACL)play Maria!
Mandy Gonzales was the only weakness (had a smile plastered on her face whenever she wasn't singing) in In The Heights, which I thought otherwise was terrific. And Karen Olivo doesn't seem young or innocent enough to play Maria, although I think she could certainly play a dynamic Anita.

I see Krysta more as Anita than Maria, but she could do well in either role.

Jeromme Robbins and Arthur Laurents infamously feuded on the 1980 revival--even back then Arthur complained of it being too white bred. I think he was exagerating, as the man does, but there may be some truth to that--people have commented here and in other places I've read how the chorus was slightly miscast. The Jets were what Robbins by then saw as "all american" which came out looking a bit, for lack of a better word, fey. Very balletic and rather gay but not really like a street gang (I think there were similar probs with the Puerto "Rican's") at all, albeit all technically perfect (Bernstein backed up Robbins' casting for what it matters). The only clip I've seen is that absolutely thrilling America clip--which only shows the girls so who knows...

But Arthur's comment certainly isn't the first complaint I've heard about that.

That said, I know I'll get flack like this, but I'm not completely thrilled with Arthur as director. yeah it sounds like his Gypsy is pretty great, but he has had a long time to perfect Gypsy--havign directed a number of revivals, from the 70s Lansbury, to the 80s Daly to regional ones. Also I think his directing style is MUCH more suited to more literal pieces, like Gypsy--WSS has to get a reallyg ood balance of stylized and literal--something Laurents basically completely failed to achieve with Anyone Can Whistle when he directed it.

I assume this will be the first major WSS revival, in New York or London, to use new designs which could prove interesting... Anyway I'm excited and intrigued but nto nearly as thrilled with the choice as most here seem to be.

E

Just as long as someone directs Tony to be less wet. I mean seriously. The kid is supposed to be the ex leader of this tough street gang. And yet in the London productions of late 90s and the ensuing tours I have seen nothing but drippy tenors play it with zero credibility. Don't get me started on the guy in the movie!

Yes he falls in love but show us some of the Tony who was tough enough to lead the Jets.

I'm certainly not fond of LA CAGE as a show either and I also think that Laurents got caught as part of the LA CAGE sweep. How Lapine lost the Tony that year beats me.
However, I think the problems with ANYONE CAN WHISTLE don't have as much to do with Laurents' shortcomings as a director but the fact that he is so arrogant that he was never able to fix his own book which in my opinion is quite messy. Plus, you can't really compare a satire so out there like ANYONE CAN WHISTLE with WEST SIDE STORY.
Honestly, I am content with the idea of him helming the revival.

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