WEST SIDE STORY Reviews- Page 2

[Trish2]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 8:14pm

I'm sorry to disagree, but to feature Graziella as one of his only stand outs in the show show is VERY Telling. It's hard to believe you can't read through those lines.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 8:21pm

People don't go to see any production of WEST SIDE STORY to see the Graziella.

Non-hardcore musical theatre geeks who are just passably aware of WEST SIDE STORY won't even remember the character.

[ljay889]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 8:24pm

Ok. I re-read Murray. While he managed to praise certain things, it was always done by knocking others. He was pretty nasty, but most of his reviews are. He HATED Gypsy last year.

[Trish2]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 8:27pm

USA TODAY: MIXED

"It's certainly not hard to root for Matt Cavenaugh's handsome, likable Tony, or the angelic but warmly coquettish Maria of Josefina Scaglione, whose sterling lyric soprano is perfectly suited to the role. Karen Olivo's witty, fiery Anita is another asset; she may not be the best dancer to ever tackle the role, but Joey McKneely's reproduction of Jerome Robbins' choreography lets her shine and the others soar.

To a point, that is. The irony is that Laurents' attempts to be inclusive and grittily realistic — the final scene in particular suffers for his insistence on technical accuracy — make the show seem no fresher, only a tiny bit less magical.

'West Side Story' revival gets a cultural makeover Updated On: 3/19/09 at 08:27 PM

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 9:11pm

I'm not actually reading the reviews right now because I have a nasty migraine brewing, but I am reading everyone's "mixed-to-positive" type desciptors, and I must say I am pleased. I was expecting much worse.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 9:37pm

I singled out Graziella in my comments as well.

This may well be the first West Side Story in which the Jets win the Dance at the Gym because Graziella is a better dancer than Anita.

Weird.

And WRONG.

[Kevn520]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 9:38pm

I remember being wowed by her dancing both times I saw it earlier this month.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 9:39pm

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 9:48pm

The Wall Street Journal is Very Negative:

"Mr. Laurents's down-and-dirty approach might have been made to work if he'd scrapped Robbins's dances and had the whole show rechoreographed from scratch. Even so, he would have had to reckon with the blandness of his stars. The only one who stands out is Karen Olivo, lately of "In the Heights," who is blowtorch-hot as Anita. Not so Matt Cavenaugh (Tony), Josefina Scaglione (Maria) and Cody Green (Riff), all of whom are competent but uncharismatic. Nor are James Youmans's big, ugly inner-city sets an improvement on the stylized fire escapes and chain-link fences that Oliver Smith created in 1957.

I give Arthur Laurents credit for wanting to make "West Side Story" new -- especially given the fact that the Robbins-supervised 1980 Broadway revival, a carbon copy of the original production, wasn't very successful -- but no amount of tough-guy retouching can make "West Side Story" into anything other than what it is, a starry-eyed group portrait of a bunch of basically nice kids who find themselves caught up in an unforgiving world of violence and hate. To pretend otherwise, as this staging mostly does, is to get wrong what Mr. Laurents and his collaborators got so gloriously right a half-century ago."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123749621032288405.html

[ljay889]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 9:53pm

Entertainment Weekly gives it a B

Finally, everyone can stop complaining about 'I Feel Pretty.' Stephen Sondheim has said his lyrics made him 'cringe' (example: 'I feel pretty/Oh, so pretty/I feel pretty and witty and bright/And I pity/Any girl who isn't me tonight'); librettist Arthur Laurents thought it never belonged in the show. In the new Broadway revival of West Side Story, it's called 'Siento Hermosa,' as translated by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Tony-winning composer-lyricist-creator of Broadway's hit In the Heights: 'Hoy me siento tan preciosa/Tan graciosa que puedo volar/Y no hay diosa/En el mundo que me va alcanzar.' It's rendered irresistibly by Argentine ingénue Josefina Scaglione — this production's enchanting Maria — and her sassy backup singers (Jennifer Sanchez, Danielle Polanco, Kat Nejat). So much so that it becomes more than a mere throwaway song for a simpering love-struck teen, more than just an upbeat start to Act 2 to distract the audience after Act 1's deadly finale. Now it's a revealing character song, a cheeky girl-group number, and a giggly slumber-party scene rolled into one.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20266431,00.html

[ljay889]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 9:59pm

Theatermania is Positive but has a problem with the new ending

Much of the current West Side's appeal depends on the cast -- which is to play off a Sondheim lyric -- not only large and funny and fine, but up to fulfilling the tragic dimensions that Shakespeare and Laurents built into the show. The real discovery here is Argentinian import Josefina Scaglione, who has every ounce of innocence required of Maria and whose soprano is pure and steady. Matt Cavenaugh, last seen on Broadway in A Catered Affair, is a tough yet compassionate Tony, and his singing of "Something's Coming" and "Maria" is all a fan of the seminal tuner could ask.


In revising West Side Story to guarantee it feels as persuasive as possible, Laurents does make a few missteps. The most obvious is the scene at the very end when Maria is tending to Tony's fallen body in the playground. Originally, members of both chastened gangs formed a respectful retreat while the policemen looked on. Now, claiming that no law enforcement officer would allow such a brazen removal of evidence, Laurents has trimmed the number of witnesses and keeps them on the spot. At the very least, he should have brought all gang members back -- and contrite -- at the slow curtain.

But although Laurents dilutes the ending of his own work, he nonetheless retains the heated theatrical magic that always was and always will be West Side Story.




http://www.theatermania.com/broadway/reviews/03-2009/west-side-story_18140.html

Updated On: 3/19/09 at 09:59 PM

[Marquise]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 10:06pm

ljay what is it with your obsession with A-Rab's pants being up or down in the taunting scene?

I just.don't.get.it.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 10:08pm

The pants-down was Arthur's SINGLE improvement in the show and he cut it.

All of his other changes made the show worse.

[ljay889]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 10:10pm

Joey, is it definitely gone? Nobody has mentioned it lately.

[singtopher]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 10:10pm

I'm actually surprised at some of these.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 10:14pm

You don't understand an obsession with if a dancer's pants are up or down?
You sound like the crazy one.

I am glad the reviewers are not giving Laurents a pass in the misteps, and are praising the original material.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 10:17pm

Interesting. Brantley seems pretty positive: he put the show on his Critics Pick list.

"The teenage hoodlums who maraud through Arthur Laurents’s startlingly sweet new revival of “West Side Story” seem like really nice kids. Youth has always been the engine of this epochal musical from 1957, created by one of the most talented teams in showbiz history: Mr. Laurents (book), Leonard Bernstein (score), Stephen Sondheim (lyrics) and Jerome Robbins (director and choreographer). But usually it’s the scary, adrenaline-stoked energy of youth that sets the tone and rhythms of the show. In this production, which lovingly replicates Mr. Robbins’s balletic choreography, what prevails is a tenderhearted awareness of the naked vulnerability of being young and trapped in an urban jungle. Half a century ago middle-class adult theatergoers were shocked and appalled by the brutality of the ethnic gang warfare of “West Side Story.” This time audiences — the grown-ups, anyway — are more likely to respond with feelings of parental protectiveness."

[ljay889]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 10:19pm

This production will succeed with or without positive/rave reviews. But a money review from Brantley will definitely be the icing on the cake for them. Updated On: 3/19/09 at 10:19 PM

[Pianolin717]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 10:21pm

:)

[SingingCats]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 10:38pm

No link to the full review yet??

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 10:39pm

His pants were down on Friday night.

[ljay889]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 10:42pm

So it looks like pants down is back. I don't care if people think I'm a pervert for asking. i just believe it really heightened the intensity of the scene. It was really shocking.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 10:42pm

The pants up/down changes whether the scene is played as assault or rape.

Updated On: 3/19/09 at 10:42 PM

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 10:43pm

The Times usually puts its "summary" up first: the link doesn't start working until (at best) a little later, or (at worst) until four in the morning :)

[jagfkb]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 10:50pm

so wait... a gang member moons the audience?