WEST SIDE STORY Reviews

Ladies and gents, boys and girls, let us welcome 'an All-American classic' back to Broadway. More than 50 years after the Arthur Laurents-Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim musical West Side Story debuted on Broadway, a revival of the classic officially opens on The Great White Way March 19 at the Palace Theatre. The piece originally made it's world premiere at D.C.'s National Theatre in 1957. This new production played an out-of-town tryout at that same venue from Dececember 15, 2008 to January 17, 2009. Broadway previews began February 23.

Directed by the show's librettist Arthur Laurents, this staging of West Side Story introduces "the unprecedented element of selectively weaving Spanish throughout both the book and songs," the producers previously announced. In fact, both "I Feel Pretty" and "A Boy Like That" are delivered entirely in Spanish (with translations by Lin-Manuel Miranda).

The cast is led by Matt Cavenaugh as Tony, Karen Olivo as Anita, Cody Green as Riff and George Akram as Bernardo. Twenty-one-year-old Argentinean actress Josefina Scaglione co-stars as the young, lovestruck Maria.

This incarnation of West Side Story boasts a cast totaling 46 and 30 musicians in the orchestra.

Welcome home, WEST SIDE, we love ya!

My best to all involved.

Break legs!

Best,
- Mike

Updated On: 3/19/09 at 02:17 AM

Well, the reviews will come in...tonight.

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"Ladies and gents, boys and girls,..."

Who ARE you?

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It doesn't provide a direct translation of the spanish, it provides the original lyrics, and has been doing so since the second or so week of previews.

Still nothing?

The Hollywood Reporter is Mixed-to-Positive:

"The idea that a musical as brilliant as "West Side Story" would require reinventing seems a bit dubious, and the doubts are confirmed by the new Broadway revival. Reconceived and staged by its original book writer Arthur Laurents to achieve a new level of grittiness, this production features a lot of tweaks -- most notably the use of Spanish for two of the songs and some of the dialogue -- that don't add appreciably to its impact.

And unlike the 91-year-old Laurents' recent smash revival of "Gypsy," this production is further undercut by some significant deficiencies in the staging and performances.

Despite the production's problems, this 1957 musical updating of "Romeo and Juliet" set on the then-tough streets of Manhattan's Upper West Side still packs plenty of punch thanks to the brilliant score by Leonard Bernstein (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics) and the legendary choreography of Jerome Robbins."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/theater-review-west-side-story-1003953472.story

(Mr. Scheck also thought Scaglione "came up short in the acting department," and that Cody Green was "terrific")

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Updated On: 3/19/09 at 06:50 PM

"it's hard not to wish that it wasn't a whole lot better."


You think that describes the consensus?

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Bitch you beat me to it.

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The Associated Press is Mixed:

"The evening's major sizzle belongs to a whirlwind named Karen Olivo, whose Anita jolts the action whenever she appears. Olivo, also an alum of "In the Heights," has an indelible personality, a forcefulness that galvanizes the Latin women on stage.

But personality is what is missing from much of the ensemble. The two rival gang leaders are played by Cody Green for the Jets and George Akram for the Sharks. They seem weirdly interchangeable, once they step off the dance floor and into Laurents' story.

Designer James Youmans' vaguely impressionistic settings are dark, all-purpose urban. Much of the action is played out under an ominous backdrop of a bridge. And, of course, there's the inevitable balcony, where Tony and Maria warble "Tonight."

Bernstein's music still makes us shiver. But we wanted to cry, too."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090319/ap_en_re/theater_review_west_side_story;_ylt=AgtpaNvUBg53iaKKYY_VcYc9FRkF

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This from the Backstage review is a love letter to Karen Olivo, even singing her Tony praises. Wow, no review has failed to mention her. While I was disappointed with her dancing, she really solidified herself as a terrific actress:

But the performer who covers the broadest emotional spectrum is the blazing Karen Olivo as Anita. She goes from the satiric exuberance of "America" to scorching bitterness when her lover Bernardo is murdered. Then she ricochets to compassion for Maria during "I Have a Love," only to be driven to weeping fury during a brutally staged sexual assault by the Jets. It's a performance for which Tony Awards were made.

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Updated On: 3/19/09 at 07:21 PM

Now that the show is frozen, are A-Rab's pants up or down for the rape scene?

It's gone now, but Newsday accidentally published it early this morning, and it was Mixed-to-Positive. You can google it to see fragments, and what was there was disjointed and not properly edited. I don't believe it will appear formally until tomorrow.

Essentially said that the production was neither revelatory nor vandalism. "Bottom line: there's a place for it."

I think Murray is more Mixed-to-Negative. He likes some things

But if Laurents hasn’t resisted these modern fillips, he’s retained the grand Golden Age sensibility in a few key places: James Youmans’s grittily detailed (and plentiful) sets, a 29-member orchestra (which, under Patrick Vaccariello’s musical direction, sounds terrific playing the original Bernstein-Sid Ramin-Irwin Kostal orchestrations), and a 37-person cast.

But among those actors, the old-time virtue of charisma is in short supply. Of the leads, only Karen Olivo evinces any: As Anita, she sings and dances with a pointed, on-the-edge fervor that justifies each of her mood swings and shreds of open-mindedness

The most dynamic performer barely has any lines. Pamela Otterson is impossibly sensual as Riff’s girlfriend Graziella, using her minimally assigned struts and kicks to own numbers no one else even wants to rent. Clad in a tight red dress, and always intensely focused on some carnal pleasure or other, she’s the reigning queen the Cold War-waging “Dance at the Gym” and melts the Jets’s “Cool” into a puddle of sweat.

Updated On: 3/19/09 at 08:07 PM