Speculate on the mysterious West Side Story "concept"

Sondheim and Laurents are being understandably tight-lipped about their approach to the West Side Story revival.

They promise that it will be contemporary without changing a word of the text..


My guess is a concept something like.. an inner city high school puts on a production of West Side Story. They bring a modern day urban youth sensibility to the golden age classic.

How do you think they will present West Side Story?

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Updated On: 12/18/07 at 09:22 PM

They project the movie onto a giant screen at the front of the theatre....but its THREE DIMENSIONAL!

Akiva

Updated On: 12/18/07 at 09:27 PM

It's performed by a cast of Middle Eastern midgets in white face! Except the role of Maria is played by Harvey Fierstein.

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Laurents will direct it with some kind of concept in that overinflated head of his and we'll all go see it and all we'll see is your average run of the mill production of West Side Story.

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The Sharks will all be played by illegal immigrants.

My guess is that they will probably just do the whole thing naked.

Updated On: 12/18/07 at 11:04 PM

I think that it will take place in present time and at the end of the show, they all sing "Were All In This Together"!

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They rename it "Rivera West Side Story." Chita will play all of the parts. Her Quintet will win her the Tony.

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It will be identical to the 1957 production, but The New York Times and the theater websites will declare it a "daring new reimagining." It will be the Emperor's New Clothes all over again.

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When they remake the movie based on the new production, Maria will be played by Queen Latifah and Tony will be played by Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, AND Ewan McGregor.

After all these years, Marni Nixon is Maria.

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Here it is:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZa7tBfPo_U

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HBPAgOvAXo

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As far as I can see, there's only two possible ways it can go:

Maria, at age seventy, tells her grandchildren of what life was like way back in the 1950s. The whole thing occurs as a flashback, every now and then punctuated by current Maria's commentary. (The kids also ask about the odd parallels between the story and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which Maria doesn't realize until the kids point it out.) And the whole thing ends with Maria's sad realization that she probably should have killed herself after the whole ordeal (for closure as well as greater dramatic effect), thus sending her grandchildren into a state of shock and inspiring in them a killing rampage much like "Silent Night, Deadly Night".

Or, a die-hard theater aficionado, going through his collection of vinyl albums, finds his vintage 'West Side Story' record and plays it in his apartment, and the characters come to life and perform the show in his apartment, every now and then punctuated by the theater aficionado's commentary.

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