West Side Story Revival will cut I Feel Pretty and Somewhere Ballet

[DaveyG]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 10:38am

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/WEST-SIDE-STORY-Revival-Will-Not-Include-I-Feel-Pretty-and-the-Somewhere-Ballet-20191109

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 10:39am

Ew.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:00am

So far I am making a list of reasons not to go.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:02am

Oh, for crap's sake.

[VotePeron]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:04am

to everyone choosing not to read the article and just have knee-jerk reactions:

"The changes have not only been approved by the creators’ estates but, in fact, reflect the original desires of Sondheim, still going strong at 89, who candidly confessed in his 2010 book Finishing the Hat that he had long been uncomfortable with some of the lyrics of the latter song. Van Hove isn’t streamlining to be perverse; the show’s action takes place over 48 hours, and he wants the production to capture that race against time. “I want to make a juggernaut,” he says. “You feel that these people are running toward their death and there’s no escape from it.”

[laurensambrose]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:08am

I feel bad for Shereen, they're really cutting what little she has to work with Maria as a character :/ 

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:09am

Good. “I Feel Pretty” is deeply out of place with where it falls in the plot and stops the momentum cold. I’m all in for a more streamlined, visceral WSS and excising the schmaltz does that.

[ChildofEarth]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:10am

So the marketing is all men, all of the cut songs helped drive the female characters, and Amar Ramasar is still in the cast.

Wow. What a time to be a woman and a fan of Broadway.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:15am

ChildofEarth said: "Wow. What a time to be a woman and a fan of Broadway."

 

Because women aren’t represented anywhere on Broadway and have zero good roles.

 

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:16am

Good. They won't be missed.

And West Side Story has always been male heavy so your complaints are a little late.

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:18am

PalJoey said: "Oh, for crap's sake."

PJ, we need you.

Please. We need you. 

Get us through this. Please.

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:18am

PalJoey said: "Oh, for crap's sake."

PJ, we need you.

Please. We need you. 

Get us through this. Please.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:21am

ljay889 said: "Get us through this. Please."

 

Melodramatic much? All you have to do to get through this is not buy a ticket. That's literally it. And it will go by even more easily if you don't read or participate in any threads on the subject. 

 

[binau]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:21am

Jordan Catalano said: "ChildofEarth said: "Wow. What a time to be a woman and a fan of Broadway."



Because women aren’t represented anywhere on Broadway and have zero good roles.

"

Yeahhh...didn't you listen to what Be More Chill was telling us????? THERE ARE NO GOOD FEMALE PARTS IN MUSICALS.

 

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:26am

JBroadway said: "ljay889 said: "Get us through this. Please."



Melodramatic much? All you have to do to get through this is not buy a ticket. That's literally it. And it will go by even more easilyif you don't read or participate in any threads on the subject.

"

I was raked over the coals on here for supporting the 2009 revival. It’s someone else’s turn. Have fun!!!!!

[devonian.t]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:43am

So there's no way to make it feel like a juggernaut without cutting a text that has been remarkably successful all this time?

Thank goodness this director knows better than all those fools who went before.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:44am

...and it’s intermissionless?!

Lord. The casting felt like a wrong turn and these edits don’t do anything to convince me otherwise.

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:48am

No intermission? This show is looooooong as it is.

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:51am

I love that this show has pushed away all the woke kids by casting Amar and pushed away all the Make Broadway Great Again boomer gays by cutting the worst song in the show. Lol, who is this for?

[broadwaybabywannabe2]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:51am

...and my 2 cents worth...i HATED this director's ALL ABOUT EVE!!!...so i will stay away from his reimagining of such an American classic...

[Luminaire2]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:56am

Gross. First Amar and now this? I hope this all blows up spectacularly in their faces.

Updated On: 11/9/19 at 11:56 AM

[JBroadway]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 11:58am

broadwaybabywannabe2 said: "...and my 2 cents worth...i HATED this director's ALL ABOUT EVE!!!...so i will stay away from his reimagining of such an American classic..."

 

For what it's worth - I also disliked his production of All About Eve.

I've been saying for a while now that Ivo Van Hove does his best work when he's directing material that was originally written for the stage (Arthur Miller, Shakespeare, Ibsen, etc.), but recently he's been doing a lot of film-to-stage adaptations - most of which I've found pretty dull and repetitive. But WSS is obviously material written for the stage, which is why I remain optimistic about this production.

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 12:10pm

JBroadway, in the article it states that he’s using the film version of America, so I’d bet good money that he’s more influenced by the film than the actual piece itself.

What a wonderful musical, and what a sad flop of a revival this is going to be.

[Kad]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 12:10pm

Video? In a Van Hove production? Groundbreaking.

[bwayobsessed]

Posted: 11/9/19 at 12:12pm

Obviously Amar’s casting is erroneous but I am all for talented directors having the ability develop a preexisting text to streamline their production approach. The intermission and I Feel Pretty in West Side Story are both annoying. I’m all for cutting them.