West Side Story - Recent Bway Revival and Nat'l Tour

[HorseTears]

Has anyone seen the current national tour of WSS based upon the Arthur Laurents directed revival? It's coming back to LA next year. Curious to know if the dancing has improved since NY. I was shocked at how slow, stiff and lifeless much of the dancing was in the NY revival -- if I'm not mistaken many segments had the music slowed down dramatically. I thought it was beautifully acted and sung, but great dance is essential with this show.

[Gothampc]

You mean Karen Olivo swishing her skirt isn't considered dancing?

[ljay889]

lulz

[matineeidol2013]

I had a friend on the WSS tour and saw it in Hershey a few months ago. This was the Equity tour of the 2009 Bway revival, which is closing in North Carolina in a week or two. I really disliked the Broadway revival, and thankfully the tour made some minor direction improvements here and there (ex: at the end, when the Jet put Maria's shawl on her head, she took his hands and held them as the curtain fell. Still not as effective as the Jets and Sharks taking Tony's body off together, but certainly an improvement over the Bway revival where the curtain fell with no hint that the two gangs may try to make peace.) My feelings toward the tour were just the opposite to your feelings towards the Bway revival, HorseTears. The dancing, which was stunning, was the best part of the poorly acted, sung, and rather lifeless production. Certainly a tired tour; its for the best that its closing in a few weeks.

The tour that's returning to LA I assume will be the Non-eq tour. This tour is based on the Bway revival and its equity tour. I have a few friends on this tour as well; I believe they rehearse in September and open sometime in October. If the dancing and tempos are mirrored from the Equity tour, I think you'd be pleased with it!

On another note, the WSS International tour based on the 2009 Bway revival as well, just went into rehearsals a few weeks ago. They open in Berlin I believe in a week or two.

[bwayphreak234]

It was okay. The cast I saw was not the great, but the dancing was superb.

[HorseTears]

Thanks for the responses. Didn't realize The Pantages booked non-equity tours; assumed it was another leg of the current tour. I'll have to look out for that before getting tickets.

Man, I would kill to have seen Debbie Allen do Anita. That clip of her on the Tony Awards is a stunner. The acting might be a touch overdone, but my GOD the dancing.

[HeyMrMusic]

Yes, non-Equity tours book the Pantages. the NETworks Spring Awakening went through there last year.

[ClumsyDude15]

The Maria holding the Jet's hand as the curtain fell began during the Broadway revival - I saw several Marias do it during the run of the show on Broadway. I haven't seen the tour, so I can't truly comment on how things are, but despite some issues with the choreography [mostly due to Karen Olivo not being the strongest dancer], I loved the revival - West Side Story is a classic and being able to watch it live on stage was truly an experience for me beyond any words I can truly say, and I will never forget it for as long as I live.

[matineeidol2013]

ClumsyDude, I wonder if Maria clutching the wrist's of the Jet member as he put her shawl on her was a change that they made sometime after the Bway opening, and I saw it before the change was implemented? I distinctly remember NOTHING happening during that final moment, and really being irked exiting the theatre...but I could very well be mistaken!

[PalJoey]

The issues with dance in the Broadway revival were not just that Karen Oliva couldn't perform the original Peter Gennaro/Jerome Robbins choreography in "The Dance at the Gym" and "America" but also that Arthur Laurents had Joey McNeely dismember the "Somewhere" ballet and use the truncated version Robbins had created for his "West Side Story Suite." Arthur also destroyed the iconic majesty of Robbins's final procession.

This was a deliberate effort on the part of Laurents to minimize the effect of dance in the production and maximize the effect of his book, by reducing, eliminating or destroying as much of Jerome Robbins's contribution as possible.

Arthur was able to do this because Robbins was dead, Bernstein was dead, Harry Kraut (Bernstein's manager) was dead and Floria Lasky (Robbins's lawyer) was dead. And Tom, Arthur's long-term love and conscience, was also gone. The people guarding the Bernstein and Robbins estates were unable to say no to the malevolent force that was Arthur Laurents, and poor Joey McNeely--who had reproduced the Robbins choreography beautifully on previous European tours--was forced to perform acts of artistic vandalism on the work of the mentor who had given him his career. McNeely will have to live with that shame.

Now Arthur is dead, and it is just a matter of time until someone does the violence to his work what he did to the work of his collaborators. It will begin with the switching of "Krupke" and "Cool," which Arthur always refused to allow, because it meant that he would have to rewrite some dialogue.

I can't wait.

[bwayphreak234]

When I saw the tour, they had the hand holding during the finale.

[ClumsyDude15]

I do believe the hand clutch may have become a cemented thing around the same time they changed the lyrics from Spanish to English.

I began noticing it after awhile, because like you said - in the beginning, there was no real interaction to show any sort of sympathy for what happened. I do know they also took out the moment when Maria use to hold the gun to Action's head, however, I personally loved that moment.

[PalJoey]

For those who don't know Robbins's staging for the finale, it's virtually the same as the staging in the movie:

http://youtu.be/ycTwZh4nBt0

[shrekster224]

Very interesting notes, Pal Joey. I love Robbins' work and the only live WSS I have seen is the recent revival, but from clips I can only imagine how much more the dancing would come alive. And I already thought the work in the revival was good, but that could have been due to the strong cast of dancers (Cody Green, Ryan Steele, Kyle Coffman, Sam Rogers, etc....).

In a previous forum it was said that clips of Jerome Robbins Broadway have been taken down for the most part. Is there anything available to see for those of us too young or not yet born to see the show?

[shrekster224]

Delete- duplicate

[darquegk]

I don't think switching Cool and Krupke will be doing violence to the work- it's one of the moments people say works better in the movie than onstage, in many conversations.

[PalJoey]

Yes, it does. I meant that it was something Arthur always forbade.

[MrMidwest]

Debbie Allen doing the original 'America' choreography

[allofmylife]

.

[ClumsyDude15]

I agree with Shrekster - the ensemble dancers of the recent revival were great and did a wonderful job.

My god, Debbie's footwork is fantastic, and as much as I loved Karen's Anita (Her vocals and her acting in the beginning were fantastic), she will never come up to the level of dancing the role needed. I am still upset they didn't allow Natalie Cortez to really show what she could do when she took over the role, but I'd assume by that point it was fairly pointless.

[EricMontreal22]

I'm curious about Horse's complaint about the tempi being slow in the dances--having not seen the revival nro heard the cast album (I did see the tour done in the late 90s, I believe, which was essentially the original production restaged. The acting wasn't brilliant, but the dancing was and it was nice to see some version of the original production).

I know in those notes Sondheim wrote to Bernstein about the cast album published in that recent WSS book, Sondheim warns Bernstein (who was out of town) that Lieberson at some parts--the Prologue for example--nearly doubled the tempo. He may have been exagerating, but I know Lieberson liked to speed up moments where he thought, without the visual of the dance, the music had to carry the drama along more--so am wondering if one reason the speed of music may have seemed slow is just because we are so used to the cast album. (On the other hand it's not all that much slower in the movie, so...)

[PalJoey]

I am still upset they didn't allow Natalie Cortez to really show what she could do when she took over the role, but I'd assume by that point it was fairly pointless.

ClumsyDude--that's what I'm trying to say here. It wasn't that Karen JUST HAPPENED not to be able to do the fan kicks and other flourishes.

It was that Arthur WANTED the choreography diluted. So that people like you would never again be as impressed by it.

That's how much Arthur hated Jerry Robbins.

[gvendo2005]

PalJoey,

Let's do it, darling. Let's defy all the odds and take West Side Story back for the people. For Jerry, and for Lenny, and for Steve.

(puts on Howard Dean costume)

* We're gonna make Arthur Laurents spin in his grave and do the switcheroo of "Cool" and "Krupke"!
* We're gonna put the boys-and-girls version of "America" into the mix!
* We're gonna assemble the remaining team and do Jerry proud!
* We're gonna restore the last remaining bastion of what it meant to be proud of innovation in the American musical theater!

YAAAAAAH!

(suddenly remembers where he is)

Oh... oh dear...

[ClumsyDude15]

PalJoey - It's such a shame, and despite how impressed I was with Karen's acting and vocals, her lack of footwork and the watered down choreography didn't really give you the wow factor that it's suppose to. Yes, the wow factor came in the sense that she acted and sang the sh*t out of it, but when the role is known for it's fancy foot work and you can't do it that sort of created a problem.

But, isn't that well known information? They clashed a lot, so it's not entirely surprising that once Robbins was gone, he'd find a way to make a mockery of his work by watering it down in his revival? I know that Arthur was not popular with any people during the revival, so I'm sure the joke was really on him.

[Gypsy9]

I feel privileged to have seen the original production of WEST SIDE STORY at the Winter Garden in the late 1950's and again at the Broadway when it returned to NYC after a tour. To see Larry Kert as Tony and Chita Rivera as Anita was breathtaking.(Unfortunately, Carol Lawrence was out of both performances that I saw.) After reading Pal Joey's comments about Arthur Laurents bastardizing the show in its recent revival, particularly in diluting Robbins' brilliant choreography, I can only thank God that I was able to see WEST SIDE STORY as its creators intended. I will always remember that production.

[ClumsyDude15]

As I said before - despite all of the shortcomings, getting to see a West Side Story revival on Broadway in my lifetime meant a lot to me. I grew up on the movie and score, so to see it live as many times as I did truly meant the world to me. Was it perfect? No, but it had so many wonderful elements to it that I'll never forget - Josefina Scagilone's Maria was fantastic and passionate, and despite her lack of foot work, Karen Olivo acted and sang the sh*t out of Anita delivering what would later prove to be a Tony winning performance.

As someone who wasn't even a glimmer of thought when the original production was running, I am grateful for the revival and all that it gave me.