MATT CAVANAUGH AND CODY GREENE MUST BE REPLACED!

What show?

Oh, calm the hell down. It is an out of town tryout. They are having a tryout for a reason, let them get their sh*t together; it has only been a week of performances.

agreed

Matt Cavanaugh is such a huge snoozefest.

I question that choice every day

I still say Matt Cavenaugh just needs better direction, and Curtis Holbrook should be Riff.

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Oh boy. Let's make rash, harsh judgements and call for people to lose their jobs in all caps.

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I disagree with the statement about Cavenaugh...thought he gave a great performance and has excellent chemistry with Scaglione. I would love to see Holbrook's take on Riff though...he was certainly a standout as Action.

Thank you, WAT. It's nice to know that someone else saw what I saw. (CBC liked Matt, too.) I think his weak scenes are the ones with Riff...for reasons that I do not need to get into.

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What is it exactly about Matt that is some people think is terrible? The fact that he doesn't have the "Tony" factor doesn't do it for me; not reason enough to put him out of work.

Specifics, please.

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To be perfectly honest, I've never seen a Tony that didn't bore me to tears. It's a boring role, one that is so easily overshadowed by Maria, Anita, Bernardo, Riff, and Action.

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Just like Anita has to wow you with her dancing in the "Dance at the Gym" and "America," Tony has the burden of starting the show with two solos and and a duet, each one of which is among the list of Greatest Songs Ever Written for Broadway: "Something's Coming," "Maria" and "Tonight."

This means that he has to wow us with his voice 3 times in the first half hour of the show. Leonard Bernstein understood this. Stephen Sondheim understood this. Jerome Robbins resented it. Arthur Laurents thinks it doesn't matter; he thinks the magic of his direction trumps Bernstein's melodies and Robbins's choreography.

In the 1980 revival, Ken Marshall did not score with the audience vocally, but understudies Steve Bogardus and Brent Barrett did. Almost 3 decades later, the two of them are still singing on Broadway. Not so Ken Marshall.

Bernstein wanted Bogardus to play Tony. Robbins insisted on Marshall. Robbins also insisted, disastrously, that the Jets look "All American." Laurents set out to right these wrongs this time around, but his unchecked ego seems to have gotten the better of him.

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Updated On: 12/21/08 at 10:33 PM

Eris0303? Were you the girl waiting for Matt Cavenaugh and Curtis Holbrook to come out the stage door? I thought I recognized you from these boards...

(i was there last night as well for the second time...frantically trying to get the signatures of those I had missed at the stage door on Thursday night...I did pretty well)

"It's a boring role"

Tony doesn't have to be a boring role. there are actors strong enough out there... willing to take the risk... to make something NEW out of Tony.

it's very possible