West Side Story- April 8th — Page 2

I was more pleased with it then not...feel free to express your opinion, that is what the board is for.

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I have been on the fence about seeing this revival, but the more I read these ongoing and constant comments about "dancing being passable", and "acting and singing make up for weak dancing", the more I am inclined to skip this production. I'm in the PJ/Lady camp. I hated Christina Applegate's watered-down Charity, and have no interest to see a choreographically watered-down WSS. If I had never seen WSS before, I would go just because it is WSS, but having seen the brilliant Debbie Allen dance like there's no tomorrow in the 80's revival, I don't need to see a production that sounds guaranteed to disappoint.

Comparing this to the choreography of the 05 SWEET CHARITY revival is totally ridiculous. The Charity revival used all new choreography. Cilento tried to keep it in the Fosse style, but it failed in comparison.

The WSS revival reproduces all of Robbin's original choreography. Yes Karen's choreography is simplified, and yes the Nightmare is missing. But the rest of Robbin's choreography is fully intact. No one tried reinventing and changing Robbin's choreography, like Cilento did with the Charity revival.

*Waits for PJ to argue that the choreography is not danced to Robbin's standards*

Updated On: 4/10/09 at 01:14 PM

Fabulous and thrilling?
My husband and I have been going to the theatre together, NY, London, various Shakespeare venues for 30 years. This West Side Story saw us turn to each other at intermission and say " Have we ever see a worse musical on Broadway?"
Where to begin, no fire, no chemistry, no menace, powerless dancing, Spanish language used in a politically correct fashion leaving most of the audience clueless and bored for two of the usually best numbers. Tony completely unbelievable as a love interest. Ridiculously red haired pseudo-offspring of a Polish/Hispanic couple hanging out, singing at one point, completely incongruous and superfluous.

Anita & Maria sing well and are both lovely ladies but they are the only ones acting and not just saying lines. That will not carry a show. The advance is due to the history and legendary character of WSS not anything to do with this fatuous production. I truly felt robbed after our night at WSS. I post this because I am often swayed to see or not see something on the basis of this board and its only fair to reflect back here my experience with the show for others to weigh and consider.

Ridiculously red haired pseudo-offspring of a Polish/Hispanic couple hanging out, singing at one point, completely incongruous and superfluous.

"Offspring"? How so?

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My understanding was that the boy who appears off to the side in the second act and who sings at the end on stage left is supposed to be Tony and Maria's dream child forever unborn because of Tony's death. Maybe that was just reading into things by the friend who told me. This is a link to the official bio which has him as a jets wannabe. Whichever he was he seemed incongruous to me but does have a very nice voice for his age.
http://www.examiner.com/x-907-NY-City-Life-Examiner~y2009m3d19-Broadway-kid-Nicholas-Barasch
According to Rick Sincere
"In the dream ballet, Laurents adds a new character, Kiddo (a role alternated by Nicholas Barasch, whom I saw, and Kyle Brenn), a boy soprano who sings ?Somewhere,? which was originally intended by Bernstein to be sung offstage by an adult soprano. Kiddo?s presence onstage as part of a triad with Tony and Maria adds a degree of hope for the future amid the tragic circumstances of the play. Kiddo?s presence is long overdue."

I obviously don't agree with him since I thought the child seemed very out of place and irrelevant, off plot.

Oh, I see.

What West Side Story always needed was "Tony and Maria's dream child forever unborn because of Tony's death."

Somehow that makes it all make sense. Thanks!

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