West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway- Page 2
West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
bwayguy22089
Broadway Star Joined: 12/16/06
#25re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/4/08 at 11:23pmSondeim was still young too. I'm not a big fan of his music, but no one writes lyrics like him. He was still great back then in my opinion. The whole show is perfection.
Boq101
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/20/06
#26re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/4/08 at 11:44pm
Somewhere is still amazing, in my honest opinion Grist should sing it in the revival, just like she did when it first opened.
How's that for revolutionary!? The same cast! no one dances, but they can still snap.
#27re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/4/08 at 11:57pm
What about Daphne Rubin-Vega for Anita?
KIDDING!
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
#28re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/5/08 at 12:16am
DAMN!
Was hoping for Seattle.
And you think of all of the things you've seen, and you wish that you could live in between ,and you're back again only different than before...
After the Sky.
-Into the Woods (Jack)
#29re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/5/08 at 11:31am
wanna be a foster...ya had me going for a hot second! 
"For me, THEATRE is an anticipation, an artistic rush, an emotional banquet, a jubilant appreciation, and an exit hopeful of clearer thought and better worlds."
~ an anonymous traveler with Robert Burns
#30re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/5/08 at 12:36pmJoey directed and choreographed that European tour as well...
DrTheatre
Broadway Star Joined: 9/23/05
#31re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/5/08 at 1:22pmJ. Lo for Anita and Marc Anthony Tony...LOL
"In the U.S.A.
You can have your say,
You can set you goals
And seize the day,
You've been given the freedom
To work your way
To the head of the line-
To the head of the line!"
---Stephen Sondheim
keen on kean
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/1/06
#32re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/5/08 at 1:58pmLooks like Arthur Laurents is trying to give George Abbott a run for the geriatric director crown.
#33re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/5/08 at 2:02pm
Exciting news 
Natalie Cortez would be fabulous in this!!!
Put Mario in this and not ALC *lol*
"TO LOVE ANOTHER PERSON IS TO SEE THE FACE OF GOD"- LES MISERABLES---
"THERE'S A SPECIAL KIND OF PEOPLE KNOWN AS SHOW PEOPLE... WE'RE BORN EVERY NIGHT AT HALF HOUR CALL!"--- CURTAINS
#34re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/5/08 at 2:42pmMario playing Anita? His arms would look kinda bulky in cap sleeves...
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#35re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/5/08 at 3:06pmI believe I read that the gimmick will be that the Jets and Sharks will speak in their native tongues. Or at least 1 of each will.
Ole Chum
Leading Actor Joined: 12/6/07
#36re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/5/08 at 3:18pm
I actually think Daphne Rubin Vega would be brilliant as Anita, if not a little old and maybe rusty in the dance numbers.
Her voice is well suited for Anita's songs and shes just such a terrific actress. Its not so far-fetched.
#37re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/5/08 at 3:45pm
I'm no math major, but doesn't this make Arthur Laurents about 117 years old???
Seriously...who's gonna do the CONTEMPORARY part of it???
Just think of your great grandparents, kids.
I'm nervous!
"To love another person is to see the face of God!"
#38re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/5/08 at 3:52pmDaphne can certainly sing the role, but it's really intended for a dancer-actress-singer rather than a singer-actress-dancer--hence Chita, Rita...Debbie Allen (gasp!) It's not far-fetched but I SERIOUSLY doubt her dancing ability is on par with a company of highly trained dancers as they are certain to be.
#39re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/5/08 at 3:58pm
Daphne would have made a great Anita on a studio cast recording around the time she did RENT. She would have never been right for the part on stage since she is not a dancer and Anita is a dancing role. And by now she might as well play Doc.
I think Laurent's idea is that Maria will not speak English to make the barrier even stronger. I hope it's not like the WEST SIDE STORY I saw at the University of Florida where Maria would say a phrase in Spanish and then repeat it in English right away "Chino, cuando veo a Chino nada pasa, when I look at Chino nothing happens." It gets old reeeeaaal fast.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#40re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/5/08 at 4:00pmGod--it's already a 3-hour show...they should call it THE WEST SIDE CYCLE...
#41re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/5/08 at 5:05pmOne of the few times I am happy to live in DC...
"Why do you care what people might say? Why try to fit into their design?" (Side Show)
teka21
Leading Actor Joined: 12/19/06
#42re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/5/08 at 10:53pmKaren Olivo, who I love in ITH, is seems much too mature for Maria. The absolutely perfect Maria is Krysta Rodriguez, who although in her early 20's can look much more like a younger, innocent teen. Krysta is a triple threat who can dance, sing and act.
FosseBoi
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/30/04
#43re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/5/08 at 11:16pmAs much as I LOVE Daphne, I must say I flipped out alittle when I read the suggestion of Natalie Cortez. I would LOVE to see that.
"I've always secretly longed for an actress to get to the top of the cherry picker and projectile vomit all over the guards below."- Wonderwaiter in the "Defy Gravity?" thread.
~~~~~~~~My dream? Sutton Foster as Cassie in A Chorus Line
Ole Chum
Leading Actor Joined: 12/6/07
#44re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/5/08 at 11:26pm
i guess thats true about Karen being older- in my head shes still understudying Mimi 10 years ago. i think her voice is radically different than standard Maria but it would work- its so powerful.
anyway i love this show and i cant wait for it to come to bway
#45re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/6/08 at 1:50am
I'm a little sick of the Robbins Choreography. Don't get me wrong, I think it's fantastic. But it's been seen SO many times and is preserved on film. The art of dance has evolved so much, I think it would be more interesting to use new choreography with the feel of Jerome Robbins. Does that make sense?
It just seems impossible to have a "radically different" production with the same old choreography...
just my opinion.
look forward to seeing it though.
broadwaybelter
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/26/04
#46re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/6/08 at 2:00amHm, I've never heard Karen Olivo's upper register, that would be interesting casting to say the least.
#47re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/6/08 at 5:58amI understand that the Robbins choreography is as much a part of West Side Story as the score, it truly is iconic, but I would like to see new choreography for a new production. I’ve always thought Mark Morris would be an interesting choreographer for WSS.
#48re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/6/08 at 6:00am
I have always thought Sondheim was being a little overly harsh in his assessment of his lyrics in WSS. THe "alarming how charming" line sits nicely on the notes and zips by so quickly that I doubt anyone ever really stops and says "hey isn't that a little too sophisticated for her to say?" I mean, after all, it is a fairly simple interior rhyme and if Maria had studied English (with professor Higgins? LOL!) she no doubt would have been taught a phrase like that.
It was Sheldon Harnick who criticized Sondheim for that line after an early performance. Harnick was right, of course, but it really is a minor flaw.
"Today the World was just an address" (I originally thought that line was "...an ATLAS") is more problematic but again it soars with the music, and it doesn't seem to have hurt the song's popularity. Even the awkward way "for a small fee in America" sits on the notes hasn't stopped the "America" numbber from becoming a showstopper.
I recently re-listened to the cast album and was again reminded how vibrant and exciting this show was when it was new.
I do wonder if for the revival, the revised "movie" lyrics for America will be used, and will they swap "Cool" with "Gee Officer Kupke?"
Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!
I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#49re: West Side Story Revival To Bow in DC prior to Broadway
Posted: 3/6/08 at 8:13am
Karen Olivo reads too old.
Krysta Rodriguez reads the perfect age.
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