WEST SIDE STORY Reviews — Page 6

Seems like Karen will be considered for best supporting actress.

Heres one from the rockland journal news(they are loving Karen,Joesefina):
Dancing With Gangs

http://www.lohud.com/article/20090320/ENTERTAINMENT/903200321/1186/Entertainment0801

thanks allthatjazz for that correction for me. i agree shes sweet and they are like us after the show ends. sorry for spelling josefina wrong. i wont be surprised if josefina is considered for feature actress too with her reviews. feature actress will be a tough one this year.

In this economy mixed won't cut it. I suppose it could squeak out a run of a year or two but theater owners are not in the pro-bono business for theater nostalgia.

If one or two really solid musicals are in the pipeline WSS is headed for the shoals.

It may be a financial hit, but it won't be an artistic one.

Laurents wanted the revival to be all about ME. Funny thing, Bernstein and Robbins dead got better reviews than Laurents alive.

The show will probably run through the fall, but could be gone by the new year.

When I say Arthur has a deal with the devil, you all don't believe me but it's true.

Apart from Robbins/Bernstein/Sondheim, he does things that are merely mediocre but then somehow has tremendous success with them, to the consternation of all the shaking heads around him, who say "How does he do it?"

His answer is a cliche turned into a line turned into a Sondheim lyric: "You either got it--or you don't, and, boys, I've got it!"

Everyone thinks the "it" in question is Talent. But it's not. That's not the "it" that Arthur's got.

Arthur's got the Luck that only the Truly, Deeply Evil fall into.

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Heard the advance is $17.5 mill. Nice !

<< The advance probably IS that high! And that's amazing.

>>

Yep... and that came from a castmember, so probably accurate.

Amazing.. oh yeah ! :))

Apart from Robbins/Bernstein/Sondheim, he does things that are merely mediocre but then somehow has tremendous success with them, to the consternation of all the shaking heads around him, who say "How does he do it?"

His answer is a cliche turned into a line turned into a Sondheim lyric: "You either got it--or you don't, and, boys, I've got it!"

I agree that the book for Gypsy is very good. The book for WSS is the weakest part of the show. On the other hand, apart from his work with Robbins/Bernstein/Sondheim and perhaps Styne, his Broadway work is mostly mediocre. Here are the numbers:

Home of the Brave - 69 performances
The Bird Gage - 21
The Time of the Cuckoo - 263 - his longest running play
A Clearing in the Woods - 36
West Side Story - 732
Gypsy - 702
Invitation to a March(1960) - 113 His last original play the open on Broadway.
I Can Get It for You Wholesale (director) - 300
Anyone Can Whistle - 9 The book is a mess.
Do I Hear a Waltz? - 220
Hallelujah, Baby - 293
La Cage aux Folles (director) 1761
Nick and Nora (book) - 9

Off Broadway
The Enclave (1973) - 22
The Radical Mystique (1995) - 56

Mr. Laurents has "it" when it comes to directing Gypsy and La Cage; that is all.

I thought Laurents was the Devil, so I guess he made a deal with himself.

To borrow a song from City of Angels, Jerry, Lenny, Steve, and Jule could sing to Arthur, "You're Nothing Without Us."

WSS could run a year. The big advance has little to do with Laurents; it's more to do with the fact WSS hasn't been done on Broadway in 29 years.

I can't believe Brantley actually has this as one of his two shows under "Ben Brantley Recommends..." on the NY Times Theater Home Page.

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Hmmm. Maybe he liked it? Just because it's the "cool" trend to hate and bash the revival here doesn't mean that all the critics hated it. As Smaxie pointed out in another thread, the critic's reception was a lot gentler and in my opinion more positive than the "word of mouth" on this board.

If the revival was directed by anyone else besides Laurents, there would not be this much hatred.

If the revival was directed by anyone else with the same results as the one I saw onstage last week , my opinion would be the same. Mediocre, emotionless, miscast and a Tony who sings like he stuck a paperclip in an electrical socket.
I have no ill will toward Laurents at all. I just felt that after the rumble I could have left and not missed too much.

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If the revival had been directed by anyone else besides Laurents, it might have been better.

A new generation of theatergoers would have seen the true brilliance of the collaboration between Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins instead of this lukewarm reduction.

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I have no love or hate for Laurents (sp?). I just thought the show was weak, disappointing and not worth my time or money. I was saddened at this a great deal....for the new generation that could have fallen in love with it again.


I have no predictions as to how long it will run....worse things have lasted long with no rhyme or reason.

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