Ivo van Hove Will Direct 2020 Broadway Revival of WEST SIDE STORY

[A Director]

More  Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyLIKctMQXY&frags=pl%2Cwn

[kdogg36]

Tag said: "Arthur would have never allowed this."

For me, that's a great recommendation for this production. Laurents was an amazing creator, but was extraordinarily hidebound regarding the interpretation of his creations.

newintown, I hear you, and if this production does those things, I'll be the first to howl about it.

[ColorTheHours048]

Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s choreography is close enough to Robbins’s style that it will match the intensity of the music, but contemporary enough to shake up our expectations. Very into the prospect of her collaboration.

[bfreak]

This definitely seems very exciting to me! While West Side Story is commonly produced, Ivo Van Hove is an excellent director who's done a great job with both plays and musicals (Lazarus was so enriching and well directed), and I think this concept if done properly will strike a cord with audiences across several generations.

[PalJoey]

 

Oh, this should be fun.

 

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Theatre community: "Wow, Glenda Jackson's playing King Lear on Broadway! This is the most unexpected news of the month!"

Ivo van Hove: "Hold my beer."

[JBC3]

Thrilled for this and van Hove's production of A Little Life this fall in Amsterdam.

[GeorgeandDot]

I'm super excited about this. It's such a crazy idea and I'm totally ready for it. Hove's direction of A View From the Bridge and The Crucible were incredible. Also, West Side Story is super relevant right now.

[dramamama611]

Ado Annie D'Ysquith said: "Theatre community: "Wow, Glenda Jackson's playing King Lear on Broadway! This is the most unexpected news of the month!"

Ivo van Hove: "Hold my beer.""

 

 

Literally LOL'd!

[BroadwayNYC2]

I can't wait for this! I loved his Crucible even more so than A View From the Bridge. That last revival was horrid. We need to move away from replicating revivals just because they are "classics."

[robskynyc]

TotallyEffed said: "In a surprise twist, Van Hove will recreate the original production exactly, with the inclusion of ChitaRivera."

im here for this. LOL

[South Fl Marc]

I was always disappointed the production that Signature Theatre (Virginia) did couldn't  move to Broadway - maybe in Circle in the Square. It was brilliant and the best production of this show I have seen, including the last two Broadway revivals.

[CarlosAlberto]

newintown said: ""Museum piece...bla bla bla... fresh interpretation...bla bla bla... cut half the text...bla bla bla... reorchestrate it with piano and kazoo...bla bla bla... take away the shoes... bla bla bla... it'sbrilliant!""

You truly sound like the only bitter theater QUEEN... 

[RippedMan]

One of my least favorite shows. So boring. I wonder what route he'd go for casting actors/singers? It seems like someone who would rather have a great actor - like the current MFL - but maybe not the BEST singers. Just kind of curious how he will make these rather bland characters entertaining. 

[BJR]

I, for one, can't wait.

If you like the original, the film still exists.

I'm intrigued it's such a high stakes show for what seems to be his first foray into musicals, which are different beasts entirely. But he's smart and talented enough to figure that out.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Tag said: "Arthur would have never allowed this."

I don't know. My impression was that Arthur became far more concerned with protecting his own legacy and contribution to the show. He certainly didn't make an effort to make sure that the Robbins choreography was presented super faithfully in the last revival.

[SomethingPeculiar]

AEA AGMA SM said: "I don't know. My impression was that Arthur became far more concerned with protecting his own legacy and contribution to the show."


Van Hove is known for tinkering with the text of his revivals (and sometimes his directorial choices just flat-out ignore the text). I would HOPE Sondheim and the estates demanded that the text remain verbatim. 

It's funny, the Spanish translations would almost make more sense for Van Hove's production than they did for Laurents' production.

One thing that hasn't even been mentioned here: Casting. I wonder if he will go with young newcomers, or if there will be some musical theatre "names" in this?

[Kad]

Sondheim is the least likely of the parties involved to demand adherence to the text as originally written.

[GeorgeandDot]

Hopefully, there won't be many cuts to the material. I don't recall many cuts to A View from the Bridge or The Crucible, so I'm not sure he'll make many cuts here. Hopefully, he won't. Although he hacked apart Angels in America, which was unforgivable.

I also hope they go for unknowns who can really sing, dance, and act the parts.

[nasty_khakis]

"Van Hove is known for tinkering with the text of his revivals (and sometimes his directorial choices just flat-out ignore the text)."

This! I don't see how anyone can defend the choice in "The Crucible," a play specifically about accusing innocent people and creating false hysteria, to have the witches be literal and real by having them fly and perform "magic." It destroys the tragedy of it all when the accusers are actually right. 

[HeyMrMusic]

While I do agree about the timeliness of the show, I wish it were told by Puerto Rican artists instead of Europeans on the outside looking in. If we want fresh perspectives, it should be from the Latinx point of view and not the white one again. I felt the same way about getting a woman’s perspective of My Fair Lady and Carousel. I at least hope it’s cast appropriately.

[bfreak]

While I don't think it's necessarily told from a particular point of view, maybe they should diversify the casting of the adults as usually they are played by Caucasian actors. That way there could be a sense of unbias between the adults and kids.

[VintageSnarker]

Immediate reaction: NO! Get it away from me!

After a day: Well, maybe the casting will save it.

Radical thought. Maybe for a fresh take they could have found a non-white or female director. I'm also worried because it should be a very American story. I don't know if the Guthrie production is any good but the thought behind it sounds interesting.

[darquegk]

Other than Lin-Manuel Miranda, the majority of Puerto Ricans I know personally (as the son of a Hispanic immigrant) have an instinctive dislike towards West Side Story as the well-meaning pop culture source of many enduring prejudices and slurs against them. I suspect many Puerto Rican artists would say something like "must we rehash this bugbear of old-timey racism, instead of creating new Puerto Rican-American art authentically?"

Is "West Side Story" the greatest fusion of musical theatre, ballet, opera, Latin jazz and 20th century classical music ever created? Yes, but it's also a show full of slurs being thrown at Puerto Ricans, who don't get off many cracks in return, and who speak a white Jew's distant idea of Spanglish (the infamous "kiddando" nickname, where Laurents appears to have tried to fuse "kiddo" with the Spanish diminutive "ito," but instead fused it entirely nonsensically to a verb tense).

As an Ecuadorian-American, I have no dog in this fight, I'm only reporting what I've heard from the people the show refers to as "the Porta Rickins" and "Pee-Ahs."

[JSquared2]

darquegk said: "Other than Lin-Manuel Miranda, the majority of Puerto Ricans I know personally (as the son of a Hispanic immigrant) have an instinctive dislike towards West Side Story as the well-meaning pop culture source of many enduring prejudices and slurs against them. I suspect many Puerto Rican artists would say something like "must we rehash this bugbear of old-timey racism, instead of creating new Puerto Rican-American art authentically?"

Is"West Side Story"the greatest fusion of musical theatre, ballet, opera, Latin jazz and 20th century classical music ever created? Yes, but it's also a show full of slurs being thrown at Puerto Ricans, who don't get off many cracks in return, and who speak a white Jew's distant idea of Spanglish (the infamous "kiddando" nickname, where Laurents appears to have tried to fuse "kiddo" with the Spanish diminutive "ito," but instead fused it entirely nonsensically to a verb tense).

As an Ecuadorian-American, I have no dog in this fight, I'm only reporting what I've heard from the people the show refers to as "the Porta Rickins" and "Pee-Ahs.""

 

Huh??  For starters, "kiddo" is a well known American slang term for a young person. Laurents had nothing to do with making up the word.

http://www.yourdictionary.com/kiddo

Also, the Sharks do get in their share of ethnic slurs, calling the Jets at various times "wops" and "micks".