WEST SIDE STORY DC SO MAD!

I have lot to say about this production and I will give them the benefit of doubt that things will get better but, boy.
The casting went on for months and spanned the world and this is what they come up with for the 5 leads!!!!

Josefina has a lovely voice, but it lacks any shading or color, she is pleasant on stage but her acting chops need to season. it's interesting that a lot was made of the fact that she is an opera singer, but her bio just says she has studied opera and all her credits are musical comedy.

Matt is totally miscast, he is a good looking man and his age is not the problem, but his singing is. He was making all kinds of weird vocal choices, and his falsetto is just not pretty, it's hard to tell if his acting scenes are badly acted or badly directed. The first scene with Riff is a disaster as it is now. You could drive a truck thru the pauses and I never believed he and Riff were best buds.

Cody Green is no actor at all. his dancing is fantastic but everytime he speaks i had to cringe.

Karen Olivo is a good performer but her Anita lacks any warmth (in the first act) and just had no spark for me. it's not good when I was watching all the girls dance AMERICA behind her, she is the weakest dancer in this number and that's just wrong.

George Akram as Bernardo, I can barely talk about because he's barely there, nothing to write home about.

The adult actors, especially Schrank and Krupke made me check my program to see if they were actually professional actors.

I will say the ensemble are terrific but at this point all the show had going for it for me were the dancing numbers.

The sets are fine except for that damn astrological chart and a huge gold church thing during ONE HAND ONE HEART.
Most of the costumes are great and the palette is stunning, but as everyone has said there were NO mini skirts in the 50's, what are they thinking?

I have more but I am just so mad that I need a drink.

I feel it's like a slap in Chita Rivera's face to cast a weak dancer as Anita.

It is a dancer's role, plain and simple. It is not right to simplify Robbin's original choreography for AMERICA, because the Anita isn't a great dancer. She needs to be a great dancer. I haven't seen the production yet, but people are saying the choreography was simplified a bit for Karen.

The role has always been a dance role.

Double. "The Office" is distracting. So are hot dogs.

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Updated On: 12/20/08 at 03:20 PM

I think you are all right. Anita needs to be the triple threat...dancing, acting, singing. But especially dancing.

It sounds like there are mixed reviews of the dancing (some are saying great and others saying not so much.) I've never seen Karen Olivo but I have heard wonderful things about her. I hope they didn't "dumb down" the choreography for her! I'm with ljay889 that she really needs to be the stand out in the dance numbers and if she isn't, then that's disappointing.

But some people have said she should prep her Tony speech...ha! So I guess we'll see.

*shrug*

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Sure Anita should be a amazing dancer but Karen is not a dancer. I have not seen her as Anita (although she is what I am most excited about) but I did see her in In The Heights multiple times and she had to dance a lot. Karen has said she is not a dancer so I think she pulls it off pretty well for not being a dancer. But most people have said she takes control of the stage and all eyes go to her, but you must have seen different.

I completely disagree about ANITA. The only reason people think it's a dancer role is because CHITA originally played it.

But when we get down to it, she only ever dances in 2 numbers. But instead SINGS in what...5 or 6? Personally I'd take strong vocals, and even stronger acting over the dancing with Anita. Yes she does need to dance, and we all know Karen can, but its not a DANCE role. A DANCE role would be Riff, or Bernardo. Not Anita.

Let's think realistically, and not make up your mind because a dance legend originally played her. The original interpretor is not the be all and end all of the what the role should be.

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No! I had high hopes for this show! Lets just hope they're off to a rough start?

Curtain, could you elaborate a tad on what was bad about Matt's falsetto? Not asking sarcastically, just curious.

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Updated On: 12/20/08 at 04:10 PM

"Karen Olivo won a dance award for her dancing in In The Heights."

"Question: This year you won the Fred and Adele Astaire Award for Best Female Dancer on Broadway. What did that mean to you?

Olivo: It was completely humbling. I feel like dancers are the hardest-working people on Broadway. They really are. They make the leads look good. Specifically for me — I'm a trained dancer as much as I can say I'm "a mover." [Laughs.] All of [choreographer] Andy [Blankenbuehler]'s stuff is so complicated and so specific. The dancers in our show were so encouraging and so helpful. They break down steps for me all the time. All of my dance partners in the club — I dance with all these different men — they are so supportive and so responsive. . . . To be in those ranks is unbelievable. They work so hard and they never complain, and it's never an issue of how many times we have to do it as long as we get it right. It's just so cool to be in that club."

So by that it sounds like she is not strongest dancer but she does "move" Personally I would have given the award to Nina Lafarga...

Jerome Robbins would never have cast a weak dancer as Anita.

Jermone Robbins would have never cast a lot of these people. That's what happens when you have a generation of theatre without dance shows and no great choreographers emerging in over a decade. You can't cast a type of actor who doesn't exist anymore.

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PalJoey, you hit the nail on the head! This production of West Side Story does NOT soar. All the moments that would have made that so, are the "Dream Ballet" (had it not been cut in half) and a watered-down version (choreographically speaking) of "America".

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