I saw "West Side Story" on Valentine's Day, and I wanted to take a few days to compose my thoughts before I posted.
First, the good: I'm happy the score was not tampered with (I'd heard crazy rumors about hip hop being added, etc). What a relief to hear the score exactly as written (minus a few instruments and some cuts). Second, the singing was beautiful - everyone delivered the spine-tingling notes of the score beautifully. It should make for a great OCR.
But from there, things go downhill. 33 members of the cast are making their Broadway debuts, and it shows. Some of the scenes literally came off like a high school production - that's a killer in a show as dramatically intense as WSS. While the video worked at some points (as it did in van Hove's production of All About Eve) at many other moments it completely overpowered the actors onstage. It made them seem small and insignificant in the cavernous Broadway Theater. It was hard to focus on the dancers in front of you when the video was so huge (this was especially bothersome when the video was not live, but prerecorded).
I think the direction bothered me most of all. WSS works because the negativity of the gang warfare is countered with an incredible, hopeful love story. It's the true love we all dream of: seeing someone across a crowded room and experiencing sparks shooting into space. Its pure joy takes us out of the awful, inevitable stink of life on the street.
But van Hove never lets it take off. I don't know if the two leads never had any chemistry, or if the director didn't allow it to blossom, but it wasn't visible onstage. Their meeting at the dance, rather than letting them leave the world and see only each other, now has them meeting while the gangs stare at them - hardly romantic. The balcony scene is oddly staged: Tony runs around Maria rather than embracing her, and we are hammered over the head with obvious symbolism: gang members literally pulling them apart from each other. Not only is that too blatant, it once again prevents the love story from taking flight. Without that love story, the show collapses.
Tony finally had the street toughness his character usually lacks (in fact, Isaac Powell is one of the best things about the show), but Maria is not allowed the growth her character needs. She should begin as an innocent - a classic ingenue. Sure, she can be smart and tough, but she has to first appear as someone like The Girl in "The Fantasticks" - dreaming of love rather than understanding it. That makes the moment when Baby John puts the shawl over her head at the end so powerful: it subtly (not blatantly) shows her final transition into a woman of the real world. This Maria is too tough and experienced at the start, leaving little room for the change into the later Maria. And I do think "I Feel Pretty" could have stayed in had it been moved earlier, as in the film. Cutting it takes away Maria's only solo, and diminishes the female energy of the show (needed to balance all the testosterone).
Finally, the dance. I was worried about how I would react to the elimination of Robbins' iconic moves, but I was ready for some exciting 21st century dance moves. Instead, I saw second-rate 20th century ballet. What I saw didn't feel contemporary at all - it felt like a pale imitation of Robbins' brilliance. And a prologue that begins with five minutes of standing and walking? C'mon.
Overall, the show is over-directed and overplayed. Too many instances of people standing literally nose to nose! Too much posturing and expressing things physically rather than emotionally. I'm all for reinventing a classic, but the reinvention needs to be at least as good as the original.
P.S. It was great to see so many young people in the theater. And it was wonderful to hear the teenage girl behind me loudly gasp when Chino fires. Oh to see WSS for the first time again!
Updated On: 2/17/20 at 02:24 AM
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