West Side Story revival?

[cjmclaughlin10]

I am also a fan of the marketing. Wish I had gotten a mailer I also never got one for The Inheritance

Not sure why I’m suddenly not getting these mailers, they used to come all the time

[SouthernCakes]

I mean it looks like any fashion ad ever. American apparel had that same blank look.

[ljay889]

I don’t think I’ve ever been less excited for a revival for a show that I love.

[SouthernCakes]

I just feel like we are going to get a big blank show. White/tan/grey color palette. Lots of open space and like brick walls but no actual sets etc. I just feel like it’s going to be so “artsy” to the point of boring.

[ljay889]

SouthernCakes said: "I just feel like we are going to get a big blank show. White/tan/grey color palette. Lots of open space and like brick walls but no actual sets etc. I just feel like it’s going to be so “artsy” to the point of boring. "

I couldn’t agree more with this. Of course, I rather be pleasantly surprised, but I’m not expecting much. 

[trpguyy]

SouthernCakes said: "I just feel like we are going to get a big blank show. White/tan/grey color palette. Lots of open space and like brick walls but no actual sets etc. I just feel like it’s going to be so “artsy” to the point of boring. "

I don’t know if it will be boring, but there will be several new elements not implemented in any prior productions. 

[qolbinau]

What elements? 

[ljay889]

The brand new choreography and orchestrations will be a major change. Right now, Tunick and Gemignani’s involvement is the only saving grace for me.

[bwaylyric]

Now about those pull quotes... Are they from the original production?

[InTheBathroom1]

I heard a rumor it's gonna be 2 hours with no intermission and "I Feel Pretty" is being cut. I don't know how true these rumors are.

[miminy]

Looking at the mailer. I count 36 photos of men. No women in this production?

[joevitus]

InTheBathroom1 said: "I heard a rumor it's gonna be 2 hours with no intermission and "I Feel Pretty" is being cut. I don't know how true these rumors are."

Sondheim, famously, hates that song. He's wrong to hate it, but he does.

[musikman]

ljay889 said: "The brand new choreography and orchestrations will be a major change. Right now, Tunick and Gemignani’s involvement is the only saving grace for me."

Ummm..excuse me?  new Orchestrations??? Yeesh, I was already trepidatious about this revival.  Are they trying to pull an OKLAHOMA! on this, musically speaking?

Tunick and Gemignani are geniuses (and I always have full faith in them), but why was it even a discussion to touch a single note of that score?

[SouthernCakes]

Not even in my top 20 favorites. But the act break happens at a pretty big moment. I just wonder what momentum there would be in cutting the intermission?

[YvanEhtNioj]

I got the mailer as well. My Roommate asked me if it was a gay version of the show because of the large picture of the guy with the lock on his neck.

[LightsOut90]

there is also a credited video designer on the show...

[YvanEhtNioj]

As long as I get a big dance-y Dance At The Gym and America, I'm fine.

[seahag2]

Just want to throw out there that in my (20 something, left leaning) theatre social circles, online and IRL, everyone is pretty disappointed and many are disgusted with Amar's casting. Not angry enough to take to social media and instagram comments necessarily, but enough to pass on this revival. Thaaaat being said, a lot of these people aren't in New York and don't really have $100 laying around for tickets anyway. If given the opportunity to see the show, they would not take it specifically because of him. Maybe you would, that's fine. Lol. So yeah people are mad but not the people who are going to impact the production enough to change the casting.

edit: just realized the discussion about his casting on this thread is from July.... late to the party

[ukpuppetboy]

“I don’t know if it will be boring, but there will be several new elements not implemented in any prior productions."

Well hopefully they’ve found a way to incorporate a 2000 pound gorilla puppet for starters

[BJR]

Oy. Are we going to have to endure months more of this pearl clutching?

If you don't like the idea of an Ivo West Side, then don't go. There are productions of this at major regionals nearly every year. And they're usually all just recreating the original concept with contemporary edge. It ain't the only - or the last - one.

[raddersons]

Did anyone see this Vulture profile with Ivo?  https://www.vulture.com/2019/09/ivo-van-hove-west-side-story-broadway.html

What interested you about a revival of West Side Story?
American theater and playwrights and authors have always interested me. It’s the same with music: jazz, the minimal music that came from America, these are all a huge source of inspiration to me. I think, when you look at [West Side Story], it’s written in a very direct way without beautifying things. It’s about young people abandoned. And then I thought, Well, there’s this beautiful score by Leonard Bernstein, which is just really a masterpiece. It gets the vibration and the feelings of the city but also of the desperate situation these young people are in — and their dreams, like in “Somewhere.” It’s an amazing story about contemporary life, about young people who get stuck in a cycle of violence. It talks about violence in the pure sense of the word. It doesn’t talk about where the violence comes from, where it goes to — it shows you the raw piece of meat.

[Pose2]

BJR said: "Oy. Are we going to have to endure months more of this pearl clutching?

If you don't like the idea of an Ivo West Side, then don't go. There are productions of this at major regionals nearly every year. And they're usually all just recreating the original concept with contemporary edge. It ain't the only - or the last - one."

Or, you know, just scroll by our comments and keep living your life. We can have any opinion we want regarding this doomed production. If they want to make it cool and edgy, whatever. But, if they start changing the text and cutting songs? It will be a bigger bomb that Carousel, and that was really, really terrible.