Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

#1

Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 3:13am

My boyfriend tells me that his friend lost the role of Tony in the upcoming revival of West Side Story to Matt Cavenaugh.

Does anyone know if there is any truth to this statement?

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"Somethin's comin', I don't know what it is but it is gonna be great!"

#2

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 5:49am

Isn't Matt Cavanaugh a little old to be playing Tony?

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BroadwayEd

#3

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 8:57am

Here we go again..........

#4

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 9:31am

TooDarnHot is the only one who really knows what's going to happen and of course, he's sworn to secrecy.

#5

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 9:34am

Is your boyfriend TooDarnHot?

Kidding.

Can't people just wait for an official announcement?

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"We like to snark around here. Sometimes we actually talk about theater...but we try not to let that get in our way." - dramamama611

#6

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 9:58am

The way they're casting this, Matt should be playing Doc.

#7

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 10:23am

I can't comment on Matt Cavenaugh but unless your boyfriend's friend is currently in a Broadway show, he's mistaken.

#8

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 11:16am

Laurents has been insisting he's casting this revival YOUNG. Matt Cavenaugh doesn't fit that description.

#9

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 11:20am

My boyfriend's friend is the standby or understudy for Melchior in Spring Awakening.

My boyfriend just did Singin' in the Rain at Peach State and his Cathy, her name is Allison, her boyfriend is the standby or understudy for Melchior and he is 22 and says he lost the role to Matt.

Just sayin...

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"Somethin's comin', I don't know what it is but it is gonna be great!"

Updated On: 7/13/08 at 11:20 AM

#10

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 11:21am

Marc Shaiman, help us out, please!

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"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum

#11

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 11:28am

That would make the "boyfriend's friend" either Jesse Swenson, Matt Shingledecker, or Matt Doyle. Although it sounds like we're now talking about the boyfriend's friend's boyfriend. And the story just gets more and more bizarre.....

Updated On: 7/13/08 at 11:28 AM

#12

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 11:41am

I hope not, I don't like his voice at all. It worked well for Grey Gardens and for A Catered Affair, but I don't think it fits WSS at all.

#13

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 11:43am

This is of course not the truth. No one believe what he is saying.

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"He found something that he wanted, had always wanted and always would want— not to be admired, as he had feared; not to be loved, as he had made himself believe; but to be necessary to people, to be indispensable." -F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise

#14

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 12:06pm

I wouldn't think anyone does actually believe this.

#15

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 12:22pm

Maybe Matt is playing Officer Krupkee?

#16

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 12:22pm

I am so excited to learn who will be cast!

Enjoy the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnf6dTiwMLQ

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"Everytime you step on that stage it is somebody's first Broadway show and somebody's last Broadway show. Make it count."

#17

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 12:32pm

Cavenaugh could sing the role without problem, but I don't think anyone would buy that he's in high school.

#18

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 12:33pm

And he also can't really act at all!

#19

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 12:59pm

Well, hell, why don't we just take turns beating the crap out of him? Tacky b***es.

I think he's very talented and would be perfect for this role.

Perhaps they aren't casting this as young as was thought. Either way, Matt isn't elderly for goodness sake.

And the truth is that most young roles need to be played by older actors because the material is often beyond what a younger actor is capable of sustaining. Not always, but often.

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johnraymondbarker.com

#20

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 1:22pm

He's a good actor and fine singer, but he certainly doesn't remotely look like a high school student.

#21

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 2:16pm

For the record, Larry Kert was 27 when he opened WSS in 1957...Matt Cavenaugh is currently 30, so not that much of an age difference.

I, for one, hope this is true. I think Matt Cavenaugh is an extremely talented actor and will be a fabulous Tony. If he were free to do Damn Yankees, I would love to have seen him as Joe Hardy. If he is cast in WSS, I am glad he will finally be in a hit show after three financial flop musicals in a row (Urban Cowboy, Grey Gardens, A Catered Affair).

#22

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 2:21pm

Have you guys actually read or watched West Side Story?

Tony and Riff are older members of the gang. They both started the Jets.

Tony is out of the gang at the beginning of the play. He's left it all behind him to take a job at Doc's. Riff is still in the gang, and is its leader alone now. He asks Tony to come to the dance "for old time's sake."

Read the play first before you start casting it. There is NO reference to Tony still being in high school.

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"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

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#23

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 3:06pm

Besty, I think people's complaints come from the fact that Arthur Laurents seems to have made a big deal about casting young actors (in their teens or early 20s, I believe) in this production, and that is one of the factors that would make this revival "ground-breaking" and whatnot. Well, casting Cavenaugh contradicts that idea in a way.
Plus, didn't Laurents say he wanted to truly get the gritty aspect of the show?

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"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"

#24

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 3:10pm

Maybe Matt will be gritty. If he's indeed Tony I mean.

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johnraymondbarker.com

#25

re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story

Posted: 7/13/08 at 3:29pm

They made the decision a while ago that they were not going to be able to cast this production as young as they had originally intended. Whether or not Laurents 'made a big deal' about casting it young, it isn't going to happen because they haven't found the talent they wanted to be able to cast the entire show in that way.

mywonderwa11, your source is a reliable one. People should not be surprised when the official announcement is made.

adamgreer, it is not a bizarre story at all. One of those individuals you listed was, indeed, in the final three, up until Thursday.

Updated On: 7/13/08 at 03:29 PM