More Photos From West Side Story DC Production- Page 6

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 10:30pm

SondheimGeek- I was not directing anything at you, just commenting on a trend that is happening in America (and all over the world, but that wouldn't be American-Superiority, unless you are talking about them feeling that we feel we should be entitled to everything).

THIS IS NOT DIRECTED AT ANYONE WHO HAS SEEN THE SHOW- If you are judging the spanish because it is spanish and not english, it is racist (look at the post Lizzie linked, those are the posts that were flooding BWW a few weeks ago).

IF YOU HAVE SEEN THE SHOW- As long as there is a logical reason for your dislike of the spanish (direction, acting) I respect your opinion.

When I first heard about the spanish being used in this production I said "They better not have subtitles". Opera fans have been trained to watch both, musical theatre fans have not. They are distracting and take you out of the moment. There is no need to know what is being said. The only people who need to know what is being said are the actors in order to correctly play a scene. I like to think audiences can watch a few scenes in a different language and get the "gist" of it. But this is the same country where people complain about instructions and subway signs being printed in both English and Spanish, so what do I know?

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 10:54pm

There are a few differences between opera being subtitled and musical theatre being subtitled...

A) Opera tends to repeat itself so you don't have to glance at the subtitles that much
B) The entire opera is usually in that language; to go back and forth between subtitles and no subtitles is jarring
C) Opera tends to have less action onstage to which you would have to pay attention

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 11:07pm

I understand all of that, I was making a comparison, perhaps not the best one.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 11:13pm

Sorry, it's just that you're not the first person to use the opera comparison and I've been wanting to point that out since I first saw it.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 11:20pm

I mentioned in another thread that surtitles can be used to positive effect, but at the National there were small units on either side of the stage, and they were distracting. It's not the Spanish that is distracting.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 12/27/08 at 11:43pm

miss pennywise:

Thank you. Most of the posts I have seen from people who have actually SEEN the show have said that the Spanish was actually integrated quite well, it was the SURTITLES that were distracting. Yet when the surtitles were cut, a new group of people who have NOT seen the show started freaking out because they won't understand anything.

This is a generalization based on observation of this board and, as you can tell, I care a lot about this production and I am very interested in audience reactions, so I have been closely following all the threads. This is not directed personally at anyone involved in this discussion or in this thread.

I don't want the production to become about the Spanish

It kind of is, but only because the production team truly feels that the Spanish will elevate the material. The production is about the story, but the only reason this revival is happening is because of the idea to use Spanish.