West Side Story Revival 2009- Page 2

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 7/6/15 at 9:16am

Also, SantanaLopez, agreed on the costumes. That's actually one of the things I remember vividly. They were such weirdly colored, off-the-mannequin clothes for these characters to be wearing. I think it's fine to make it less 1950s and just set in a timeless musical idea of New York, but respect the show's character and grit!

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 7/6/15 at 4:56pm

I remember being very disappointed by Next to Normal and by Billy Elliot that year. This show was the best show that year. I enjoyed Hair a lot, but this show was brilliantly executed. Josefina hit some insane notes during the show...she is truly 1st rate. Amazing singer and performer. She barely spoke any English prior to the show...

[ACL2006]

Posted: 7/6/15 at 5:23pm

I saw this revival twice. Once after it first opened when I was able to snag a SRO ticket for $40. The singing simply wasn't Broadway caliber, the Robbins' choreography was a little sloppy already & the costumes were taken straight from American Apparel. I HATED Cody Green as Riff & Matt Cavenaugh was the worst Tony I've ever seen in any production of WSS anywhere. The girls were dressed like street walkers(using nice words here) & the spanish inserted into the show simply wasn't needed. "The Quintet" was a clusterf*ck, "A Boy Like That" was a circus & "Krupke" was a bad comedy act. The show had it's good points, but at the same time this was West Side Story & I should have been blown away by it.

 

Now on to the second time I saw the show, about a little over a year after it opened. My friend won 4 tickets to the show and offered to take me along. I was hoping the show improved since I saw it roughly two months after it opened. There was a new Riff, John Arthur Greene, which was an improvement over Cody Green. But then the list of u/s appeared in the lobby. I still have the slip from that day & I wish I was able to take a picture of the lobby board. TWELVE (12) understudies for this performances. Olivo wasn't one of the ones out, but Hydzik was on as Tony, Carlucci for Maria & it seems like every swing was on in someone's track. To say this was a mess is putting it lightly. The choreography was the sloppiest I've ever seen. Robbins must of been rolling over in his grave because those dance captains should have been fired. No energy from anyone except Olivo, Greene & Hydzik. No emotions, no feelings & truly an embarrassment that these actors were all on Broadway collecting a paycheck.

Updated On: 7/6/15 at 05:23 PM

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 7/6/15 at 8:07pm

It was big drama fodder if I recall, all the frequent absences. And Riedel fodder. Didn't he write about Laurents furiously gathering the cast and making it rain with all the understudy slips? There's some Laurents. Bitchiness I can get behind,

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 7/6/15 at 10:56pm

Both times I saw the show, there were no understudies on. I saw it in the summer when it opened and then about a year after. I was blown away both times.

[Marway44]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 6:33am

I had no understudies either, but I remember thinking the Spanish was pulling me out of the moment.  I liked the authenticity of it, but there were a lot of people complaining at intermission and at the end.  The one think I'll never forget was the appearance of the bridge for the end of act 1.

Updated On: 7/7/15 at 06:33 AM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 10:25am

The funny thing with Cavenaugh is that, initially, Arthur was his biggest defender when others wanted to cast someone younger from the get go (Matt Shingledecker, as I remember, was a finalist for the role).  Eventually, he turned on Cavenaugh, however, and ultimately let him go. 

Riedel reported on his speech to the cast about attendance, and I seem to recall it getting better after he reamed them out. 

[SantanaLopez]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 10:56am

"The funny thing with Cavenaugh is that, initially, Arthur was his biggest defender when others wanted to cast someone younger from the get go (Matt Shingledecker, as I remember, was a finalist for the role).  Eventually, he turned on Cavenaugh, however, and ultimately let him go. 
Riedel reported on his speech to the cast about attendance, and I seem to recall it getting better after he reamed them out. "

What was the reason for Arthur Laurents turning on Matt Cavenaugh. Did he do or say something to offend him?

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 11:28am

I think all those speculations about Matt's firing were not confirmed.

Anyways, whoever says that Cody Green was not good in the show, is obviously not that sharp...he is an extremely talented dancer. His numbers were great. But people on this board will say that Karen Olivo can't dance and then will complaint about Cody. This has to be the bitchiest community online ever.

Karen danced just fine, for the fact she isn't a trained dancer like Cody and so many other talented people in the cast. The cast was superb and they showed up both times I saw it. Karen and Josefina did the show for a very long time, so they had vacation time that was scheduled in advance.

Regarding the alleged "mini skirt", the dancer you are talking about it, had to do major dance moves, splits, spread eagles, etc. She wore a skirt that allowed her to do so in a very artistic way. It wasn't anything sexy or provocative. This is a professional ballerina doing what she does best.

Updated On: 7/7/15 at 11:28 AM

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 11:30am

"What was the reason for Arthur Laurents turning on Matt Cavenaugh. Did he do or say something to offend him?"

Bearing in mind that this is just rumor based on speculation and reading comprehension, it's my opinion that the worm turned when Arthur realized Matt Cavenaugh had strung him along and wasn't actually in love with him. I am in no way implying Arthur used the casting couch in casting Matt, but the very suggestive reporting of magazine profiles at the time certainly seemed designed to imply a close connection between the two, and it seems to be slightly beyond the bounds of coincidence to me that just after Matt announces he's engaged to a lovely young girl, Arthur sours on him.

Updated On: 7/7/15 at 11:30 AM

[LarryD2]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 11:43am

Bearing in mind that this is just rumor based on speculation and reading comprehension, it's my opinion that the worm turned when Arthur realized Matt Cavenaugh had strung him along and wasn't actually in love with him. I am in no way implying Arthur used the casting couch in casting Matt, but the very suggestive reporting of magazine profiles at the time certainly seemed designed to imply a close connection between the two, and it seems to be slightly beyond the bounds of coincidence to me that just after Matt announces he's engaged to a lovely young girl, Arthur sours on him.

Does anyone really think that Matt Cavenaugh -- a heterosexual man well-known to be in a relationship with another Broadway performer -- actually "led Arthur on" and made him think he was interested in Arthur to earn the role? Maybe in Arthur's mind that's what happened, but I doubt that story has any basis in reality.

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 11:50am

Riedel was responsible for that story. Riedel wrote this in 2012 about Arthur's posthumous book.

Frankly, I always liked Arthur. He made for good copy, especially when he screamed at the “West Side Story” cast for missing performances. Or when he fired leading man Matt Cavenaugh after he married his girlfriend.

Laurents says my columns about Cavenaugh were “all lies,” adding that my epitaph should be “Here Lies.”

But now that he’s . . . down there listening, let me report what I couldn’t while he was alive: Laurents fell in love with Cavenaugh during the out-of-town tryout. He protected him from the producers, who wanted to fire him. When Cavenaugh told him he was getting married, Laurents tried to dissuade him. He refused to attend the wedding and peppered him with vicious e-mails while he was on his honeymoon.

A friend of Cavenaugh’s says: “Arthur played so many psychological games with Matt. It was sick.”

http://nypost.com/2012/10/10/laurents-the-ungrateful-dead/

Updated On: 7/7/15 at 11:50 AM

[wickedfan]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 11:52am

Complaints about Green weren't for his dancing, but his acting. He was supposed to be the leader, yet one's eyes couldn't be taken off of the other Jets who were able to exude actual danger. The Olivo debate has been done to death. And while no one can actually lock down a written statement from Laurents saying as to why he all of a sudden decided on Cavenaugh being dismissed (and apparently would no longer answer his calls or emails), many people, cast members included, took note that the change in Laurents' attitude happened when Cavenaugh asked for a few days off to get married. Speculation has persisted ever since, most of it probably inaccurate, but the timing of Laurents' dramatic dismissal has always remained odd.

PalJoey is right on target. This was a misguided revival that was steered by a man out for revenge. There were flashes of the real West Side Story (Graziella and Riff's duet in Dance at the Gym, Josefina Scaglione's final monologue, and anytime Karen Olivo spoke or sang), but too often there were directorial or design choices that felt so at odds with the material, one has to wonder if they were deliberate. 

It should also be noted that this revival was probably the most anticipated production of the season after Billy Elliot. Everyone was thrilled to have a large scale production of WSS with a full orchestra and a cast of very talented performers, who might really break on to the scene once it was destined to explode on Broadway. But that didn't happen. Love for the material kept ticket sales high for about a year before things started to drop. Laurents didn't get a Tony nomination for Director like he most definitely expected (the contempt in his tone when interviewed about it at the time was palpable) and Hair, which everyone dismissed wasn't going to be able to capture its magic from the park, got the critical love and Tony win. Much like the revival of A Little Night Music, I'm thrilled that new audiences who never had before, were given the chance to see West Side Story live on stage and perhaps fall in love with it. I just wish it was a better production. 

[starcatchers]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 11:55am

"I think all those speculations about Matt's firing were not confirmed.
Anyways, whoever says that Cody Green was not good in the show, is obviously not that sharp...he is an extremely talented dancer. His numbers were great. But people on this board will say that Karen Olivo can't dance and then will complaint about Cody. This has to be the bitchiest community online ever.
Karen danced just fine, for the fact she isn't a trained dancer like Cody and so many other talented people in the cast. The cast was superb and they showed up both times I saw it. Karen and Josefina did the show for a very long time, so they had vacation time that was scheduled in advance.
Regarding the alleged "mini skirt", the dancer you are talking about it, had to do major dance moves, splits, spread eagles, etc. She wore a skirt that allowed her to do so in a very artistic way. It wasn't anything sexy or provocative. This is a professional ballerina doing what she does best."

 

Well, I guess I'm just not that sharp. Green, when he showed up (which was rare), was atrocious as Riff. His dancing was fine, nothing mind blowing (and before you jump in to insult my intelligence - I am a dancer as well). My problem was with the fact that he was unbelievably boring on stage. 

 

As as far as the skirt issue - a period-appropriate skirt would probably have been much more comfortable to dance in. 

[HorseTears]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 12:01pm

I remember reading - perhaps here? - that late in the Broadway run, or perhaps on the national tour, the dancing improved dramatically and was no longer so sluggish and unpolished.  Anyone recall? 

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 12:02pm

I don't remember why but Cody Green left very early in the run. John Arthur Green (who was much better) started going on a few months into the run. 

[LarryD2]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 12:18pm

Cody left after four months. Prior to leaving officially, he called out quite frequently too.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 12:18pm

I mentioned in my original post that I found the dancing to be a bit sharper on my 2nd viewing. This was in May 2010, which was 11 months after my 1st. The whole production as a whole was better. That is actually sad because you think they would want to open with the best show possible. Not improve it after they lost most of the Tony Awards they were nominated for.

[Peter2]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 5:08pm

For me, the whole thing was sunk by poor musical values, especially the weak singing.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 5:54pm

Re: ljay889's post, I was unaware of Riedel laying it out quite so bluntly, but his version of events doesn't surprise me in the least, considering I read profiles of Laurents in reputable publications at the time of the revival that were a hair away from suggesting he and Cavenaugh were an item. And let's be fair... Cavenaugh was (to borrow some of Riedel's phrasing in another piece) "a canny little operator," kissing ass in interviews and press for the revival, always slipping in an Arthur story.

Poor Arthur -- got his ego stroked, when he'd rather have been stroking someone else. What a shame.

[gangtey]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 9:37pm

I brought my twelve year old niece to see this show in Washington, her first West Side Story. I was delighted that she was thoroughly engrossed, loving every minute of it, right up until they started singing in Spanish. The poor kid was deflated at suddenly not understanding the words. The Spanish was a dumb gimmick, especially in the Quintet when the Sharks sang their parts in Spanish, except for the word "Tonight!" Oy.

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 10:26pm

I saw in on tour and I really enjoyed myself despite thinking how clean the costumes looked. Maybe it was because I never saw a fully staged version of WSS, but I was impressed. I also thought the dancing looked sharp even if it wasn't going to be on the caliber of the original. I actually loved the Spanish because it made it seem more authentic and less "white washed" and maybe it helped that I already knew the material.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 7/8/15 at 12:28am

Cody Green was in the show for longer than 4 months, since he performed at the Tony Awards in June and I don't think he left right after the Tonys aired, and the show started previews at the end of February. He also did the run in DC if I'm not mistaken.

All those rumors about Matt sound so untrue. I think he has a sweetness in his voice, he was so amazing in the show. I don't think he needs to sleep or flirt with anyone to get a role, because he was fantastic in the show and he is a brilliant performer. Did he also sleep with Christine Ebersole or the producers of Grey Gardens to get that role too? C'mon.

Updated On: 7/8/15 at 12:28 AM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/8/15 at 12:32am

Yes, that's how that works.

[BonnieBanks]

Posted: 7/8/15 at 12:37am

Let's also remember that Tony is one of the dullest parts anyone could ever play onstage  ever. He also has one of the most annoying songs ever written for theatre. M-A RIIIIIIIIIIIII--AA. Ugh. Nails on a chalk board.

Updated On: 7/8/15 at 12:37 AM