WEST SIDE STORY DC SO MAD!- Page 5

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 12/21/08 at 7:23pm

sperm to worm...means...we're there from as we started before the womb to after the tomb, when we come back to life as a worm??

No, no. Worm is in reference to the worms that eat you when you're dead and burried. At least, that's what I've always thought. They're all a little... stupid.

[LindyLee]

Posted: 12/21/08 at 7:24pm

This will probably sound like a really dumb question...I've only seen the movie version. The "rape" scene in the movie is a near rape. Does the rape actually happen in the stage version?

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 12/21/08 at 10:36pm

Yes.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 12/21/08 at 11:06pm

Schrank was HORRID. I cannot understand how he was cast. I hate to say negative things about performers but he was a total waste in the show.

I love the Robbins choreography but I wonder if the "dance-fighting" at the beginning hasn't stood up to the test of time the way the rest of it has. I heard several snickers from the younger members of the audience sitting around me. I wonder if they're more cynical to see it as the art it is and just finds it silly. Maybe they see more violence through television and video games that they can't see the choreography for what it is.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 12/21/08 at 11:40pm

No, it was still a "near rape." I was in the front row of the mezzanine right above where it is staged.

[ljay889]

Posted: 12/21/08 at 11:50pm

So is the choreography/movement used for the "rape scene" still Robbin's choreography?

There are different things going around.

[Neverandy]

Posted: 12/21/08 at 11:51pm

This sounds terrible.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 12/21/08 at 11:54pm

A-Rab's pants are unzipped, he lies on top of her and thrusts, then Anita screams. That's as close to rape as theatre gets, IMO.

Updated On: 12/21/08 at 11:54 PM

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 12:00am

I don't really want to get too graphic here, but it was an attempted rape. It's normal for someone to scream when rape is being attempted.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 12:07am

That sounds like the original choreography.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 12:13am

PJ, can't you come down and see it before it opens on Broadway? I'll go with you! I want to go back next week.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 1:05am

I saw the so so tour in the 90s that used the original staging, the rather good 1999 London production which again used the original designs and staging and have a copy of the libretto--I've always been pretty sure it's a near rape as well--though it is further played down of course in the movie.


"Wickedrentq, the movie line is "birth to earth." Makes much more sense. "

Sperm to worm though sounds much cruder and so fits better with teenage guys as a catch phrase. I dunno, in this case the dialogue is meant to sound a bit stupid--most such catch phrases between groups of friends that age frankly do. *shrug* All that's never bothered me too much. It is interesting that now everyone finds the dialogue so dated--the slang I mean when at the time that Laurents and Sondheim made it they purposefully tried to invent slang or use jazz slang, etc, and stay away from current youth slang so it *wouldn't* date. But most people my age now seem to think it IS the youth slang of the time.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 1:20am

What a lousy season.

A crappy, low-talent Pal Joey and now what seems to be a similar dim-wattage revival of WSS. Look at who played Anita in the original. And Tony and Maria. If you can't match Chita Rivera, Larry Kert and Carol Lawrence, simplifying the performance demands is malpractice. And as for this "they're going to speak Spanish at last?" Half the cast of one of my productions did that in 1975. Yeah, real novel, pops.

As the Jets would say, "Maybe it's time to retire, old man."

[ljay889]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 1:23am

^ Gee, are you still pissed LEGALLY BLONDE closed, and WSS took the theater?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 1:39am

" And as for this "they're going to speak Spanish at last?" Half the cast of one of my productions did that in 1975. Yeah, real novel, pops. "

Must have not been too well regarded a production if it wasn't shut down for messing with the material...

[allofmylife]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 1:43am

Your comment is typical of why I very rarely even come here anymore.

But beyond that....

I am frankly getting disgusted with these cheap, shoddy revivals that are being foisted on Broadway. Even the orchestration "improvements" that have been dolloped all over Pal Joey are putrid. I was right a year ago when I gagged on the thought of Hoff as Joey and Stockard Channing can.not.sing. Not a note. Even the spaces between her notes are off key.

And now it looks like another classic is being raped. (And there was no rape in the original. They would never have gotten away with that in Eisenhower America. Near rape, yes. Full-rape, no... why am I sounding like Rob't Downey Jr?)

God forgive them, ljay889, if they try to revive Legally Blonde. My wrath will be cosmic.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 1:54am

This production of WEST SIDE STORY is not "crappy," "shoddy" or "cheap." It's quite beautiful, really. I'm looking forward to seeing it again, at least twice.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 2:27am

Sorry I didn't mean to sound quite as bitchy as I did--I swear. Just that I know doing such things without the authors permission is illegal and so I was being catty that they must not have realized--so for Laurents his idea prob is new...

[BroadwayBound062]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 2:36am

So I am seeing this show in March and I am so excited but I have a question. I don't really understand the whole singing in Spanish portion. Are all of the songs sung but Maria, Anita, and so on actually song in Spanish and which ones? Also are any changes that were incorporated into the movie going to be used?

[ljay889]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 2:39am

No movie changes are incorporated.


And I believe only parts of the "Quintet", "I Feel Pretty", "A Boy Like That", and "I Have A Love" are in Spanish.

[BroadwayBound062]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 2:49am

Thank you ljay889....I'm really hoping this revival is amazing

[LindyLee]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 7:48am

ok, so near rape...but still sounds pretty graphic and traumatic. I'm really looking forward to seeing this show when we come in April! Since the movie is the only version I've ever seen, I'm going in with an open mind and intend to enjoy the show. I absolutely love the music, and growing up with the soundtrack & knowing most of the words to the songs, I think it will be easier to sit back and enjoy the new Spanish lyrics and imagine what the characters are feeling while singing.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 8:56am

"And I believe only parts of the "Quintet", "I Feel Pretty", "A Boy Like That", and "I Have A Love" are in Spanish."

Yes, those are the only songs sung in Spanish and the "Quintet" wasn't translated so if you didn't already know what they were singing you might be kind of lost.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 12/22/08 at 10:44am

"Wickedrentq, the movie line is "birth to earth." Makes much more sense. "

Sperm to worm though sounds much cruder and so fits better with teenage guys as a catch phrase.

I agree. I was responding to WRQ saying the line was "burst to earth," which makes no sense.