West Side Story Revival Details — Page 3

Call_me_jorge said: "msmp said: "ljay889 said: "Apparently most of the book is being cut."

Kinda curious how they managed to get the Bernstein estate to sign off on all these changes (assuming the rumors are true) given how fiercely protective they are of his work. Unless there's been a significant change in who the trustee administering the estate is, that's the most surprising part of all of this."

If the cuts only pertain to the book wouldn’t they only need the permission from the Laurent estate? Or both?

"

There's been talk that they've cut songs ("I Feel Pretty" and/or altered the score as well, so that would definitely require the Bernstein estate's participation. I think you're right that if it is just the book, it'd only be the Laurent estate, though (unless, I suppose, the book cut altered a song/reprise somehow).

ljay889 said: "Now this new revival, this is definitely NOT going to be West Side Story. I have a feeling it’ll make theOklahoma revival look traditional."

I was thinking the same thing... At least Oklahoma! didn't touch the text or score...

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On the West Side Story Instagram page today, two stories were posted of the rehearsal sheet music for "Tonight (Quintet)". Bernado's part is still in English, and on the second story you can see in the credits where it says "(Based on original orchestrations by Leonard Bernstein)" does that mean the orchestrations are similar?

I imagine a lot of blank space and video close ups. And the choreography will be the big drastic change.

I understand why so many people are comparing this to Oklahoma, but it’s important to remember that this revival was announced (with Van Hove’s involvement) well before the Oklahoma revival got any sort of real attention. It had played at Bard, and announced its St. Ann’s run, but that’s it - definitely no talk of Broadway or Tony Awards at that point.

Plus, Van Hove has been doing work like this for a long time. Probably a lot longer than Daniel Fish, and if not, then at least a lot more in the public spotlight. And Daniel Fish’s work on Oklahoma was very much drawn from the European style of theatre-making, a category within which Van Hove has been a major player for well over a decade. I’m not calling Daniel Fish derivative, but I am saying we DEFINITELY shouldn’t be implying that Van Hove is derivative of Fish.

I just think that while it’s natural to think of this revival in relation to the Oklahoma revival, it’s important to remember that this production of WSS is not trying to copy, or ride the coattails of Oklahoma.

And on a separate note: to those of you who are saying that making cuts to the book would make this “not West Side Story” - do you feel that way about 95% of Shakespeare productions from the past 20 years? Or many Sondheim revivals, for that matter? And if they are making cuts, what do you expect them to do, call the show something else? Despite having the same score, plot, characters, themes, and much of the same dialogue as West Side Story? The purist mentality is truly mind-boggling to me.

SouthernCakes said: "I imagine a lot of blank space and video close ups. And the choreography will be the big drastic change."

You should work on developing a better imagination.

everythingtaboo said: "The OP should really rename this thread to "West Side Story Revival Speculation" because there's really no true detail of anything yet."

Some of the speculation is quite accurate.

Updated On: 10/29/19 at 12:57 PM

JBroadway said: "I understand why so many people are comparing this to Oklahoma, but it’s important to remember that this revival was announced (with Van Hove’s involvement) well before the Oklahoma revival got any sort of real attention. It had played at Bard, and announced its St. Ann’s run, but that’s it - definitely no talk of Broadway or Tony Awards at that point.

Plus, Van Hove has been doing work like this for a long time. Probably a lot longer than Daniel Fish, and if not, then at least a lot more in the public spotlight. And Daniel Fish’s work on Oklahoma was very much drawn from the European style of theatre-making, a category within which Van Hove has been a major player for well over a decade. I’m not calling Daniel Fish derivative, but I am saying we DEFINITELY shouldn’t be implying that Van Hove is derivative of Fish.

I just think that while it’s natural to think of this revival in relation to the Oklahoma revival, it’s important to remember that this production of WSS is not trying to copy, or ride the coattails of Oklahoma.

And on a separate note: to those of you who are saying that making cuts to the book would make this “not West Side Story” - do you feel that way about 95% of Shakespeare productions from the past 20 years? Or many Sondheim revivals, for that matter? And if they are making cuts, what do you expect them to do, call the show something else? Despite having the same score, plot, characters, themes, and much of the same dialogue as West Side Story? The purist mentality is truly mind-boggling to me. "

We don’t know whether the drastic cuts to the text are true or not, but what recent Sondheim revivals have made drastic changes to the text? The recent off broadway revival of Pacific Overtures featured a condensed book of one act, trimmed by John Doyle and John Weidman himself. The Company revival has book updates revised by Sondheim under guidance from Marianne Elliot. I don’t think these examples are comparable to the rumored drastic changes to the text of this new WSS revival. This revival would likely never happen if Arthur Laurents were still alive.

Updated On: 10/29/19 at 01:11 PM

The Merrily revival used all additional text from George Furth’s drafts, and as you said, was obviously approved by Sondheim.
I just feel this WSS is a different animal from anything we’ve seen.
Again its all rumors, but apparently Sondheim is letting them try certain changes until he sees it on the stage, and then decides to keep it or not. Which would make sense given there’s an extremely long preview period.

I can't understand why people are criticizing a show that hasn't even gone into previews.

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trpguyy said: "everythingtaboo said: "The OP should really rename this thread to "West Side Story Revival Speculation" because there's really no true detail of anything yet."

Some of the speculation is quite accurate."

I can also verify that some of the speculation indeed reflects what is currently going with this revival.

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Actually, there was quite a bit of push back when Flower Drum Song played, it lead to the new (then) term of "revisal" being used.

There was also annoyance at the additions/edits make to Cinderella a few years back.

But the news cycle is so fast this day that although nothing ever really disappears from the internet, it is easy to overlook what was said in 2003

scarlet721 said: "Actually, there was quite a bit of push back when Flower Drum Song played, it lead to the new (then) term of "revisal" being used.

There was also annoyance at the additions/edits make to Cinderella a few years back.

But the news cycle is so fast this day that although nothing ever really disappears from the internet, it is easy to overlook what was said in 2003"



That is interesting, and if that's true, then I stand corrected on that particular point.

But that then raises the question: What about now? What's the legacy of that pushback after these years? Do people STILL care about the changes made to Cinderella and Flower Drum Song? It feels to me like we've just collectively accepted the new versions of these shows as having their own place in the cannon. I guess if I were to ask one of the people who complained about the changes to Cinderella, they would still probably be opposed to them. But from a broader, more collective standpoint, it feels to me that all of those productions that I named are remembered more for their quality. If the changes worked, the production is remembered positively. If they didn't, it's remembered negatively. But the mere fact that changes were made by someone who isn't the author? Doesn't feel all that controversial after time has passed. Which connects back to my earlier point about this being a knee-jerk reaction to the unfamiliar.

And what about something more recent like Iceman Cometh? I was on this message board then, and I have no memory of some big uproar around the trimming of the script. Why get mad about West Side Story and not Iceman Cometh?

I realize a lot of what I'm saying in this post is conjecture based on my subjective impressions. But am I wrong about this? For those of you in this thread that are mad about the rumored changes to WSS: do you feel the same way about all the other examples I mentioned?