PalJoey Sees His Beloved West Side Story

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 1:14am

I think this production will garner good reviews and have a long run, even in this shaky world economy, but it was a profound disappointment to me. In a nutshell:

* Arthur cast a Tony who can't sing the part, an Anita who can't dance the part and a Riff who can't act the part. (And I am a fan of all three of them!) If Jerome Robbins and Leonard Bernstein were alive, they would have vetoed those three performers. Karen Olivo will fare better than the two men, because she has the two dramatic scenes in the second act that help us forget about her lackluster dancing in the first act.

* The Jet dialogue was always--and is now more than ever--the weakest link in the writing. "Cut the frabba-jabba" should have been cut long ago. And "womb to tomb" and "sperm to worm" have NEVER worked.

* The reproduction of the choreography lacks the qualities of character, emotion and dynamics that are the hallmarks of Jerome Robbins's theater and ballet choreography. The dancers, for the most part, seem to be going through the moves as if no one bothered to explain to them what the movements mean. And, in Robbins's work, every movement has a very definite psychological meaning.

* The fight scenes at the beginning and end of the first act are simply not menacing enough. They lack the precision and drama that Jerome Robbins would drill into them.

* The direction seemed to miss out on every moment of dramatic tension in the first act and the first half of the second act. Only in the scenes in the second act between Maria and Anita and with Anita and the Jets did Arthur find any real drama--he seems to do his best with scenes of women yelling.

* Anita is supposed to be the best female dancer at the Dance at the Gym. In this production, Graziella (Riff's girlfriend) is the one that makes the audience go "Wow!"

* Anita is supposed to be the best dancer in "America." In this production she is outshone by the rest of the Shark girls.

* I said about the Quintet, "Well, at least Arthur can't mess this up." But then he did.

* "Siento Hermosa" works the best of the Spanish scenes and songs, although it simply calls into question the notion of having them speak in Spanish sometimes and not others. See below.

* When Tony climbs into Maria's room after "I Feel Pretty," Arthur has Maria just stand there and repeat "Killer! Killer! Killer!" over and over again. In Robbins's staging, she lifts her fists and pounds him on the chest while she repeats it in anger, until her she exhausts herself and her anger turns to sorrow and she realizes he is not a killer and she collapses in his arms. THAT is what is supposed to motivate him to start singing "Somewhere" to her and to take her away, far far away...

* The ballet, as reduced to tatters in this production, is a desecration of a work of art, made laughable by the American Apparel or Gap costumes and the unimaginative lighting. To do the dream ballet without the Nightmare renders it sappy and uninvolving. And as choreographed, the dancers seem to have no idea what the movements of the Scherzo and the "Breathing" mean. What was once a breathtaking centerpiece of the production is now what Arthur always accused it of being: a distracting diversion. It really is Arthur's Revenge.

* The Spanish was a directorial notion that was poorly thought-out and executed ineptly. It was one of many directorial conceits that would have received a cease-and-desist notice if any other director had been caught doing it. How odd that the author himself has such bad ideas. Again, if those two collaborators were alive, they would have argued--and won.

* Note to everyone who thinks the "Rape scene" is so revolutionary. Nothing is done to Karen Olivo that was not done to Debbie Allen, Rita Moreno and Chita Rivera. I repeat: Nothing is done to Karen Olivo that was not done to Debbie Allen, Rita Moreno and Chita Rivera. Got it?

* Maria's final scene lacks the dramatic twists that are written into the script. Whether it is her acting, Arthur's directing or her having to switch between languages, the emotional journey from shock at Tony's death to sorrow to anger ("I can kill now because I hate now") to despair ("...and still have one bullet left for me") just doesn't happen.

* The sets by James Youmans are fine, particularly the Rumble, which is very Mad Max. Okay, fine. Why not? But this is 2009--why must creaky balconies still rumble on during the quiet cadence of "Maria," drowning out the end of the song? And where in New York is there ever a fire escape that big?

* The costumes are the most poorly conceived and executed costumes for a Broadway musical since Merrily We Roll Along. If the intention was to make the jets "tougher than ever before" (probably an impossible task), then what's with the pastel colors? And what's with the Jet girls' miniskirts. Is this 1957? '67? '77? '87? '97? Or are the costumes supposed to be "timeless"? In which case, consider it another bad directorial notion.

* The lighting design is also inept: It seems to have two looks: "on" and "off."

Obviously I'm biased toward the 1980 revival, which even I admit was weak. This one, I'm afraid, is weaker.

I heard the ghosts of Lenny and Jerry whispering exasperatedly in my ear frequently throughout the show. Only once did I laugh out loud: When the Jets missed the rhyme (and the meaning) of the lyric "Every Puerto Rican's a lousy chicken"--they pronounced it with 2009 political correctness "Ree-kan." Well, Noo Yawkers in the 1950s called Puerto Ricans, somewhat insultingly, "Porto Rickens."

I could hear the ghost of Leonard Bernstein sighing loudly, "Not Ree-kan! Ricken! RICKEN! It rhymes with CHICKEN!"

I love this show, and I think it will get good reviews and a long run, despite my criticisms. There, as Arthur is fond of saying, you have it. Take this for what it's worth and move on.

Updated On: 3/6/09 at 01:14 AM

[ljay889]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 1:48am

* I said about the Quintet, "Well, at least Arthur can't mess this up." But then he did.

- How?? I thought it was the highlight of the first act.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 1:49am

Here is where the costume designer got the inspiration.

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

Sorry you were disappointed, so was I, well more bored. The whole thing lacked passion and danger.

[ljay889]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 1:51am

Regarding the rape scene - I think many are shocked by A-Rab pulling his pants down and being thrown onto Anita. Did that happen in the Robbin's staging?

[SNAFU]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 1:56am

His pants didn't come down when I saw it. He made as if he was unbuttoning his pants and then he was lifted up and on to her.

[ljay889]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 1:57am

His pants were all the way down to his ankles at the fourth preview.

[bk]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 2:03am

A very good post, Pal Joey. There's only one odd thing - you keep talking about all the dead collaborators who would be up in arms, and how Lenny would be angered by Reekan and chicken." The one who should be really angered by that and SAYING SOMETHING about it, since he's ALIVE, is the one person I don't think you mentioned - Stephen Sondheim.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 2:05am

They weren't on Monday night. The rape scene is pretty much the same that is in the film and in the revival in the 80's. He is lifted up and placed/ thrown between Anita's legs as the others hold her down and cheer him on.

edited for typo

Updated On: 3/6/09 at 02:05 AM

[ljay889]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 2:07am

That's too bad. With his pants down, it made the scene even more frightening. He's been pulling them all the way down since DC, I wonder if Arthur changed it for good?

[SNAFU]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 2:10am

Maybe or maybe he just had trouble with his 501's

[Actor 7]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 2:15am

Pal Joey: Thank you for a very insightful review. Your comments are quite valid and consistent with many others who are seeing this in previews. Arthur is 90. I am now wondering if he is getting a pass because of his senior status? Probably. Yes, this revival will probably have a good long run but will it be the great production we thought it might be? Probably not. I think even Stephen Sondheim will be shy about expressing what he truly may think of Arthur's directorial work here. Arthur was a great book writer for West Side Story and Gypsy. He also wrote a few good plays. He was NEVER considered a great director except for perhaps this last Gypsy. He had his bombs and they were big ones. This is most likely his swan song although he does have a new play in the works. Maybe he will surprise us. What baffles me is that the assistant director and other creative staff did not step in and do some of the things that clearly needed to be addressed. Pal Joey addresses many of those "things" in his review. How many performances are scheduled for WSS prior to opening night? Not too many of the significant changes I expected might be made during previews seem to be happening. So this is turning out to be just a revival with not that much of a re-imagining. Jerome Robbins had it right. Maybe a future revival of this show will get it right as well. We will see.

[binau]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 2:16am

"The one who should be really angered by that and SAYING SOMETHING about it, since he's ALIVE, is the one person I don't think you mentioned - Stephen Sondheim. "

I also thought this, especially Sondheim/the Spanish lyrics, but then I thought Sondheim appears to be quite critical of his own work and would be less protective of his own work..

[allofmylife]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 2:58am

I missed seeing the original WSS as a kid by two years but having seen - and I still remember - Gypsy and almost everything that has played on Broadway ever since, this just fails to inspire me to cross the country and see it. What an amazing year, one in which we seem to have screwed up "West Side Story", "Pal Joey" AND "Guys and Dolls" through bad casting and indifferent direction. How on earth is this possible? Oh, I know, all three shows were "bold re-imaginings" of the originals.

Huh.

[bk]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 3:41am

Yes, please save us from directorial "visions" that don't trust the material. If you don't trust the material, don't do the show - it's that simple. Guys And Dolls doesn't need the help, nor does Gypsy, nor does West Side Story, nor did Annie Get Your Gun.

I was obsessed with the film of WSS - saw it once a week for fourteen weeks straight at the Grauman's Chinese Theater, in 70mm. About a year into the film's run there, they did a really sort of cheesy production at Frank Sennes' Moulin Rouge on Sunset Blvd. - later the Aquarius Theater and now the Nickelodeon Studio. I went because of the cast - a lot of the movie people were in it, along with Carla Alberghetti (Anna Maria's sister) and Larry Kert as Maria and Tony, and, best of all, Chita Rivera. Her then husband Tony Mordente, who played Action in the film, was in it, as was David Winters (who I later took dance class from, and who much later would go on to choreograph me in the Donny and Marie Show and direct me in his awful film Racquet), and quite a few of the others. I think Tucker Smith, Ice in the movie, was playing Riff, and I think one of the lesser Sharks, maybe Jay Norman, was playing Bernardo. But the Moulin Rouge had no height and not much depth, so the sets were like high school - I vividly remember being very nervous during the balcony scene because the balcony kept swaying madly anytime Larry and Carla moved. Still, it had all the original Robbins staging and I'd never seen that amazing ballet. So, despite the cheesy physical production, it was still pretty magical.

[Byron Abens]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 3:48am

One of the actresses in my current show was telling me that her husband (who has recently worked with Arthur) took their 11 year old daughter to the first preview. 11 year old's response to the show. "It was ok. It looked like a GAP ad."

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 6:14am

I am so disappointed to hear the continued criticisms on one of my favorite shows. I was really hoping that things would be cleaned up between DC and NY but it doesn't seem to be the case.

I'm bringing my HS kids in two weeks. (We'll be one of the obnoxious big groups crowding mid town!) I'm sure THEY will enjoy it as they aren't as critcal as most of us. I just hope I do! At least a little.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 6:40am

Great review although I'm sorry you were disappointed. All of your points all seem to be points that would bug me. However you say none of the authors are alive--but don't mention Sondheim (then again I have it on very good authority that Sondheim suggested some things to Laurents recently, in as soft a way as possibel,a nd Laurents basically blew up and refused to talk to him anymore so...).

Laurents seems to get Gypsy (more or less) but West Side Story's weakest element IMHO has always been its book (which isn't bad it's just not what the score, choreography and original staging and even Sondheim's early lyrics were). I think to get someone who doesn't seem to appreciate how what was groundbreaking about the original wasn't the libretto (yeah there was rape and death on Broadway woohoo) so much as the staging--something Laurents has even said in some *older* interviews. Other of his early complaints--that the casts were always too old, and the Jets too "swishy" and then we get a cast that's older than many past casts and swishy Jets--it doesn't install much faith.

I saw the 1999 London revival which was a recreation (more or less) of the original production. It wasn't perfect, the leads were young but rough but ultimately it really worked and drew me in. I'm not sure this one would...

[East Village]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 7:44am

Nada, Joey! No te gusta nada?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 8:07am

Me gusta Maria. Me gusta Graziella. Me gusta Curtis Holbrook. Me gusta "Siento Hermosa." Me gusta the blond Shark girl. Me gusta Baby John and A-Rab.

And that, folks, concludes my performance in Spanish.

Ljay, A-Rab's pants were on, as they always have been. He zips up his fly as he walks away. Perhaps that suggested to you, as it has to others since 1957, that something more happened. But the scene is staged as it always has been. It is, however, acted with great passion by Karen Olivo and the Jets.

I have it on very good authority that Sondheim suggested some things to Laurents recently, in as soft a way as possible, and Laurents basically blew up and refused to talk to him anymore

Sadly, this would not be the first time that has happened.

[sondheimfan2]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 8:12am

After reading this "review," it seems to me that PalJoey has an axe to grind with Mr. Laurents.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 8:33am

I hope the critics don't give Laurents another pass, this production has nothing ground breaking sbout it.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 8:40am

sondheimfan2-
Actually, PJ is one of the *few* members that can actually say something about a production and have it be taken as gospel. Even if he has an ax to grind with Laurents, he has said nothing that hasn't either been mentioned by another member (although he has probably said it better), or is proven fact (Laurents is not a nice person, tempermental, and difficult to work with).

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 8:48am

Well, Sondheimfan, after having seen this production, I pretty much agree with everything he said, so... whatever you want to think, buddy.

PalJoey, I saw the show at the invited dress and A-Rab's pants were all the way down around his ankles. It's a shame if they've changed that since. It was a very effective touch.

[hmpeterson]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 8:52am

It has been said on this board, "why do a revival if you aren't bringing anything new to the show." Sometimes I agree with that.

But bk is 100% right, there are certain shows that stand on the material alone and don't need "freshness." G&D and WSS are timeless, classic, beautifully written shows that don't need "vision" "re-tooling" "a fresh spin." NOOOOOO!!!! Leave the material alone, do the show as it should have been done, and make sure you cast it well. Let the actors give their interpretation of the role and you have your freshness.

Boy it is heartbreaking to hear that all these new revivals are not living up to the standards that they should.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 9:18am

"After reading this "review," it seems to me that PalJoey has an axe to grind with Mr. Laurents."

It would seem a lot a people on this board have an "ax to grind" then because PJ is simply reinterating a lot of what has already been said.

I'm sorry you were disappointed, PalJoey, this can be such a beautiful show and they managed to suck a lot of the life out of it.

I thought the costumes were an eyesore. The Sharks costumes were better than the Jets but that's not saying much. The Shark girls had their full skirts that were closer to the period than the miniskirts of the Jet girls. And every time I saw A-Rab I thought he should be waiting tables at Juniors.