WEST SIDE STORY (2019 Revival) Preview Thread — Page 29

cfbrrr said: "That there needs to be, or even should be, “modernized” versions of classic shows to render them relevant or even palatable to contemporary audiences is a highly debatable notion — especially when, if then canonized on Broadway and accompanied by commercial recordings/video representations, they come to be accepted by/revealed to large swaths of the public as *the show itself*. Artistic license can be destructive as well as liberating — in the long as well as short term. Murder can result from both a bullet and a virus."

I think there's a delicate balance between taking a revival too far and not taking it far enough. Some more recent revivals that I'd score with different degrees of "messing with the material" would be, in order, My Fair Lady, Pippin, and Oklahoma.

My Fair Lady is a pretty faithful revival - but it did have a new, albeit controversial, ending that reflected the times - and, fittingly, lined up with George Bernard Shaw's original view of the show. Pippin had a few changes - the circus element, the gender swap of the Leading Player - but it still remained faithful to the intent of the authors, as well as keeping much of the original Fosse choreography. Oklahoma had some radically different elements from the original - the dream ballet, the lighting, the orchestrations, the staging of the fight - but its big selling point was that it did this without changing a word of the text (besides adding "Oh, come on, not the guitar" for Laurey).

The key thing that unites all these revivals is that they made changes, but are still faithful to the visions of their original writers. Shows can be "modernized," but there's a balance to be found, and it's a very delicate one.

(Also, and this is a moot point, but after seeing her in the John Mulaney special, I really want to hear Shereen Pimentel sing I Feel Pretty.)

cfbrrr said: "I Feel Pretty” is musically brilliant, with a snappy Hispanic rhythm..."
I like the song and I did miss it in the revival (more than I missed the ballet) but "Hispanic rhythm"? That is a meaningless description of the music. Is it a tango? conga? danzon? salsa? That's the kind of cluelessness about Latinx culture that led Lloyd Webber to write a Brazilian samba for Evita's arrival in Buenos Aires. Don't get me wrong. I love that number too. But authentic it's not. And neither are the castanets and flamenco steps in "I Feel Pretty."

NYCblurb said: "It's still quite awful. Stark. Boring. Not yet winning. Seen it now three times and opening looms."

a) Obviously many people disagree with your assessment.

b) Why do you keep going back??

I caught this for the third time this afternoon, and I can report there have been quite a few changes made throughout the preview period. The biggest changes are to the projections. America, Officer Krupkee, and A Boy Like That/ I Have A Love all have new projection sequences. Maria also has some new costumes. Her white dress for the dance now has sleeves, and she wears jeans and a tee shirt in the final scene as opposed to the dress which she wore earlier in previews. I also felt like there were more strings in the orchestrations of Somewhere. It sounded absolutely heavenly. All of these changes only made the show even better than it already was. I really love this production, and I look forward to seeing the completely polished and frozen show post opening!

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bwayphreak234 said: "I caught this for the third time this afternoon, and I can report there have been quite a few changes made throughout the preview period. The biggest changes are to the projections. America, Officer Krupkee, and A Boy Like That/ I Have A Love all have new projection sequences. Maria also has some new costumes. Her white dress for the dance now has sleeves, and she wears jeans and a tee shirt in the final scene as opposed to the dress which she wore earlier in previews. I also felt like there were more strings in the orchestrations of Somewhere. It sounded absolutely heavenly. All of these changes only made the show even better than it already was. I really love this production, and I look forward to seeing the completely polished and frozen show post opening!"

What were the new projections? Anything drastically different?

i havent read this thread (i will) but i found the production pretty brilliant.

the projections were particularly clever, and in a way a revelation: it kept the story on stage while opening us up to a real life set. the use of the backstage dressing rooms also worked. really brilliant.

isaac powell blew me away. i thought he was struggling to sustain a bit but he really opened it up on Somewhere and was heartbreaking towards the end. He was so bland in Once On This Island but this will make his career. The way he put "Maria" together made me laugh and gave me a lump in my throat. I am a cynical guy, so thats no small feat.

Shireen Pementel has a lovely (if boring) soprano but was charming as hell- her Maria oozed personality that prior Marias that i have seen didnt have. I still think cutting I Feel Pretty is a bit of a betrayal but now that Ive seen how this Maria was put together, it made sense. She had a packed house riveted and silent during the finale- a real moment where Theater did its thang. I wasnt as impressed with Riff or the understudy singing Officer Krupke- he who shall not be named was fine as Bernardo, thought its hard not to notice that he cant sing. Yesenia Ayala did a fine job, and didnt overplay the graphic rape scene.

My gripes are twofold: first of all, why stage so much so far away from us? Even with the video, and even with my decent Orchestra seat, the cast constantly felt like it disappeared into Doc's store. Why?

More confusing for me was the makeup of the Jets: casting blind doesnt bother me one bit when racial makeup is not an issue, so bring on Rebecca Naomi Jones and Josh Henry leading big ole Broadway classics anyday. But HERE the actual makeup of two groups of people is critical to the story. I have no issue juggling the story such that the Sharks/Maria are Chinese and the Jets/Tony are Hasidic Jews as long as the racial animus is apparent to teach the lesson of the stupidity of Tribes. But the Jets were made up of different races and you couldnt tell the Sharks and Jets much apart. I just am not sure why they did this other than to make Officer Krupke a police brutality thing (done very well) but then Im looking at 4 white dudes complaining about police brutality, and a black guy telling the PRs to go back home. it didnt kill the production by any means but this felt like overwokeness to me.

regardless, strong recommend from me. kudos to the production team. like Oklahoma! did, this made me feel pretty good about where musical theater could be headed to make sure classics dont go stale.

Has IvH changed the America projections.



Loved the show. Hated them.

Updated On: 2/5/20 at 07:00 PM

SisterGeorge said: "JDonaghy4 said: "iI have no issue juggling the story such that the Sharks/Maria are Chinese and the Jets/Tony are Hasidic Jews as long as the racial animus is apparent to teach the lesson of the stupidity of Tribes."

If you take a look at at many of the warring gangs of today, often they are of the same race and you can't tell one tribe from another except for their identifying tattoos. I think this is just one more way in which this production makes this classic musical brilliantly contemporary. You have to find a group to hate in order to elevate your own status. If they look different, great. If not, that works too.

"

I appreciate this point but that isnt the story here. Its *specific* to racial animus towards Puerto Rican immigrants, and *specific* to their mistrust of the Americans who treated them so poorly. That text is still there. Youre hitting the nail on the head: they are de-specifying the context, generalizing it- like when someone takes away the specific traumas/controversies of African Americans or Jews in place of "general intolerance"- it muddies it. The more I think about it the more it seems a grave misstep.

Henrik, i dont know what the prior projections were, but i particularly liked them last night: the images of NYC gave way to images of Puerto Rican shanty towns. At the very end they slipped in a picture of Trump's wall which I found a little on the nose and unnecessary but i thought it otherwise worked well. Didnt realize until much later that they switched the roles- with Anita complaining about missing Puerto Rico and Bernardo playing Anita's role.

BenElliott said: "I loved the video work in Network, but here? Trash. Everything is absolutely ruined by it. It's just a big, empty ugly stage with some student film upstaging everyone.

He's talking so far down to the audience that I found it nearly insulting. Everything about this is lifeless, mathematical, painfully on the nose, and at times, exploitive."

to each their own because i liked it alot but i have to STRONGLY disagree re the video projections as compared to Network. In that show it was utterly pointless; here at least it set a scene, gave you a physical context. God, I hated Network.

I do agree with you that this director always talks down to us, and some of the projections (like the ones you mentioned) were doing that, even if i found them effective. Didnt he do the Crucible a few years back? Same problem.