WEST SIDE STORY Sequel, MARIA, in the Works From Long Wharf Theatre- Page 2

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 12/21/21 at 9:12pm

I love how people cite Annie Warbucks and Bring Back Birdie as justifications for stuff like this existing-

Ya know, cause people LOVE ANNIE WARBUCKS AND BRING BACK BIRDIE. WHAT classics. 

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 12/21/21 at 9:22pm

Lawyers, don’t you just love ‘em?

[HogansHero]

Posted: 12/21/21 at 9:36pm

I have a lot of questions and a lot of comments but I am going to limit myself to one each for the time being: who is this person's agent? And I hope they enjoyed their nap. 

LOL

[zainmax]

Posted: 12/22/21 at 1:10am

Lol… this story is nuts

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marchershberg/2021/12/22/following-report-theater-changes-tune-on-west-side-story-sequel/

[pmensky]

Posted: 12/22/21 at 1:23am

zainmax said: "Lol… this story is nuts

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marchershberg/2021/12/22/following-report-theater-changes-tune-on-west-side-story-sequel/"

OMG. Long Wharf just keeps looking dumber and dumber. They should have just told the truth.

[NOWaWarning]

Posted: 12/22/21 at 1:30am

Bettyboy72 said: "I’m going to write a sequel to Grey Gardens about Little Edie’s life in Florida and call it Bal Harbour."

Can you PLEASE?!

[zainmax]

Posted: 12/22/21 at 1:32am

NOWaWarning said: "Bettyboy72 said: "I’m going to write a sequel to Grey Gardens about Little Edie’s life in Florida and call it Bal Harbour."

Can you PLEASE?!"

I need this

[darquegk]

Posted: 12/22/21 at 8:37am

We need WEST SIDE ZOMBIES: Maria and Doc team up to stop the zombified Jets and Sharks from eating New York at large.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/22/21 at 9:02am

I hope it’s a 3 hour musical between Maria and The Jets, set at a lawyers office arguing over the terms of Tony’s Will. 

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 12/22/21 at 9:43am

How Maria Got Her Groove Back.

[Valentina3]

Posted: 12/22/21 at 9:54am

Jordan Catalano said: "I hope it’s a 3 hour musical between Maria and The Jets, set at a lawyers office arguing over the terms of Tony’s Will."

Lol, dude had nothing but vibes to offer.

But this would be a perfect setting to reprise Krupke, who will by now have become Mayor or something.

[MyLife]

Posted: 12/22/21 at 10:59am

MAMMA MARIA

Maria is pregnant and the father could be one of three men. This story follows Marianas she sets out to find out whether her baby daddy is Tony, Chino, or Action.

[greensgreens]

Posted: 12/22/21 at 1:43pm

It sounds like a cool concept. But, why does it have to be a sequel? I feel like there is more than enough "meat" here to create a standalone work with characters similar to WSS, if that is necessary. If I were on the creative team, I'd also worry about the inevitable comparisons to the original.

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 12/22/21 at 2:10pm

greensgreens said: "It sounds like a cool concept. But, why does it have to be a sequel? I feel like there is more than enough "meat" here to create a standalone work with characters similar to WSS, if that is necessary. If I were on the creative team, I'd also worry about the inevitable comparisons to the original."

You haven't really been following, have you?

[White_Lotus]

Posted: 12/22/21 at 3:41pm

two things came to mind when i first read about this:

1. how on earth did they get permission from the laurents estate to even do this?

2. there is no way the laurents estate approved this.

according to the recent forbes article, it was clearly the latter.

i am not the least bit surprised.

the backpedaling about this is laughable. 

[<3Ragtime2]

Posted: 12/23/21 at 4:16pm

Jordan Catalano said: "I hope it’s a 3 hour musical between Maria and The Jets, set at a lawyers office arguing over the terms of Tony’s Will."

Brilliant. 

Really, though, such a pointless project. Utterly pointless. 

[Kad]

Posted: 12/23/21 at 6:43pm

Well, one of the co-authors issued a new statement, and it... clarifies very little :

Surely many of you have been waiting for our response to the recent uproar about a new musical (currently titled MARIA) which is still in its very nascent stage of development. An entertainment lawyer I have never spoken to has taken it upon himself to "break the news" through @Forbes, using samplings of online information that span a year. Had he spoken to us, he might have learned a bit more of where we currently stand with the project. Had he been an honest supporter of art makers, he would never have put out such an opportunistic piece. Additionally disturbing, he has done so on the coattails of the release of West Side Story now playing in movie theaters and the death of American Theatre's beloved Stephen Sondheim. Who does that?

As for this project, we retain our rights as playwrights to do our research and bring every part of the collective dialogue to our desk. That will include many resources, conversations, and the positive/negative experiences of the Puerto Rican community. Anything that has shaped our experiences in relation to the U.S. will be explored. All germinating information will bring us to a healthier understanding of what our play might be about. Part of this research involves WSS and its legacy. Because of its place in our history, the imagined aftermath to WSS became a hook, a way to jumpstart and distill the larger fabric of our interests. As in any artistic process, the germinating idea will continue to evolve and will do so for years to come. Let this be an example to all playwrights, artistic institutions, and funders, that releasing too much information during nascent artistic processes has the potential to paralyze and polarize new works.

After we voiced our initial ideas last year, UNIVERSES did, in fact, speak with West Side Story Estate representatives, at their request. It was a fantastic conversation. And while West Side Story's creators may own their masterpiece, the Puerto Rican people must and will own their own stories

So where are we at now? We all experience a traumatic moment at the end of WSS. That is our shared experience watching it. It is what Steve and I have lived and spoken of for years. What happened to both our own families when they walked away from murder scenes? They rose. And while it is too early to know if this is a direction we will even want to take, it also sits among our research. It is our TRUE lived experience, and when you see hints of it play out on stage or on the big screen it is triggering. So yes, what happens to someone who is "starry-eyed", who then walks into a world that does not want them in it? What is it like when you realize that you have lost so much for nothing? What is it to be part of a world that disowns you from your truest self? This is what we find ourselves trying to explore. Who knows where it will lead.

We have never asked permission for telling the stories we tell and in the way we tell them. We have been granted great gifts of confidence by our communities in the past, that have allowed us to shape and tell these stories, and we are grateful for you all.

But for all of you who are standing in outrage... please take a seat... there is nothing here to be outraged about now... when there is, we'll be the first to let you know.

Gracias a todos,
yours in truth,
Mildred Ruiz Sapp"

[pmensky]

Posted: 12/23/21 at 7:02pm

What a bunch of sidestepping. They keep digging themselves into a bigger hole.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 12/23/21 at 9:55pm

Having read this several times, I am left with a number of questions that I doubt anyone here can answer. 

It started well. In my experience, The Forbes theatre writers are wrong more than they are right, so she got my attention. And I also think copyrights are too long. Furthermore, I think that "releasing too much information during nascent artistic processes has the potential to paralyze and polarize new works" is not a bad maxim. That said: I am having difficulty getting from the "fantastic conversation" with the rights holders to "We have never asked permission for telling the stories we tell and in the way we tell them." What does this mean?

I had a professor once who always said "If you can't write clearly, don't write." It was good advice.

Updated On: 12/24/21 at 09:55 PM

[zainmax]

Posted: 12/23/21 at 10:43pm

Wow… between this lady and Charlotte, people in the theater need better PR training

 simply because you’re an artist doesn’t mean that you can ignore copyright law

[ACL2006]

Posted: 12/23/21 at 10:46pm

There's no way this ever has one performance.

[A Director]

Posted: 12/24/21 at 12:18am

I have seen two plays by UNIVERSES. The first was PARTY PEOPLE about the Black Panthers and The Young Lords. The second was UniSon suggested by August Wilson's unpublished poetry. There was songs and dance in both, but the plays aren't musicals. Both were exciting and bold and provided things to think about when the lights came up.  PARTY PEOPLE was done at The Public.

UNIVERSES was founded by Mildred Ruiz-Sapp and Steven Sapp. They are husband and wife.  Both grew-up in The Bronx.  Her family is from Puerto Rico and she has relatives and friends who live on the island.  This is from their website. "UNIVERSES is a national Ensemble Theater Company, of multi-disciplined writers and performers of color, who fuse theater, poetry, dance, jazz, hip hop, politics, down home blues and Spanish boleros to create moving, challenging and entertaining works for the stage. The group breaks the traditional theatrical bounds to create its own brand of theater. Founded in The Bronx, New York in 1995, the members of UNIVERSES came together in the urban poetry and music scene of the late 1990s; quickly moving through the “down town” performance scene to built a home for themselves in American Theatre. In their 24 years, UNIVERSES has performed at venues throughout the United States and toured extensively worldwide."

I watched a Zoom Chat where they talk about MARIA.  One of the germinal ideas for the play was their reaction to Hurricane Maria and its aftermath. Remember he who should not be named going to the island and tossing paper towels.  Mildred said it got her thinking, once again, about the relationship between the island and the mainland. Yes, they talked about WSS, but more in terms of the stories of young girls who come to the mainland and what happens to them.  I think the Zoom Chat happened this past October. I got the impression they are in the talking stage about the play and are getting ready to start their research. For PARTY PEOPLE, the spent 1 to 2 years interviewing members of the Black Panthers and the Young Lords.

As for ""We have never asked permission for telling the stories we tell and in the way we tell them.", these are my thoughts. Mildred knows more about being Puerto Rican than the  creators of WSS. During the writing of "Maria," anything to do with WSS could fall away.  Let's be honest, for most people, the only play/musical with Puerto Rican characters they know is WSS.  Yes, there are other plays/musicals, but the general public, theatre people and those who post here don't know them. She is right, they don't need permission to tell stories about "real" Puerto Ricans.  As for "in the way we tell them," she is referring to the style of past UNIVERSES plays.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 12/24/21 at 12:29am

Thanks for doing what I didn't think anyone here would be able to do.

[A Director]

Posted: 12/24/21 at 12:33am

HogansHero said: "Thanks for doing what I didn't think anyone here would be able to do. "

You're welcome. As for anyone here, snark becomes them. 

 

[pmensky]

Posted: 12/24/21 at 12:49am

So, are we supposed to ignore all the quotes from previous press releases and the content of posted YouTube videos which state that this musical was a sequel to West Side Story which explores Maria’s future, because they say all those quotes and videos (still posted) never existed?