A new revival production of West Side Story, directed by Ivo van Hove and featuring brand-new choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, starts previews at the Broadway Theatre on December 10th, with an official opening on February 6, 2020.
I figured we should start fresh with a new thread for those who are attending previews. Who's going?
I was at the final dress tonight. Show ran at an hour and 45 minutes. Won’t give too much away, but it’s VERY abstract. They use video heavily throughout the whole show, and it’s all modern, cell phones etc.
I would kindly disagree. Ivo has helped produce incredible performances in collaboration with Elizabeth Marvel in Little Foxes, Ruth Wilson in Hedda Gabler, Gillian Anderson and Lily James in All About Eve, and many more. While I do agree I feel Pretty should be reinstated, I don't think he is simply not trusting female-identifying people onstage, but rather possibly finding the aspect of the story that he personally found important today to tell.
While I think we obviously need more information to come out to inform exactly what the aim of this specific product is, we need to stop discounting it simply because it is not the original staging or a new approach to what we thought West Side Story was/is.
An hour and forty five minutes???? This musical typically runs 2:30 to three hours depending on the production. Good lord.
I know there is no love lost for him because he was such a nightmare (a talented nightmare, but a nightmare all the same), but Arthur Laurents must be rolling in his grave.
Not sure why people keep giving Van Hove permission to mess with classic properties like this. His Crucible missed the point entirely and was completely insane, and don't even get me started on his Streetcar Named Desire staged in a bathtub. He just wants to be weird for the sake of being weird.
possibly finding the aspect of the story that he personally found important today to tell.
Today's stories shouldn't cut female's songs, have men there for no reason, and have no women highlighted in the advertising. That isn't what the MeToo era or 2019 has been all about.
Two of the most important characters are female in this piece. So cutting out anything that showcases women is unforgivable IMO. This is a Romeo and Juliet Story. A story about toxic segregation of groups, and toxic men. Does the impact get lost with cutting so much of the involvement of women in the piece?
ModernMillie3 said: "Bob, I was referring to this production only.
possibly finding the aspect of the story thathe personallyfound important today to tell.
Today's storiesshouldn't cut female's songs, have men there for no reason, and have no women highlighted in the advertising. That isn't what the MeToo era or 2019 has been all about."
What a baffling statement. Stories should tell whatever stories they want to tell. And having a male-centered show has zero to do with Me Too one way or the other.
ModernMillie3 said: "Bob, I was referring to this production only.
possibly finding the aspect of the story thathe personallyfound important today to tell.
Today's storiesshouldn't cut female's songs, have men there for no reason, and have no women highlighted in the advertising. That isn't what the MeToo era or 2019 has been all about."
But today's shows also do not have to be activist for a political agenda although some will be written specifically to tell those stories. We don't have enough reports yet to know if there is a valid narrative arc that these changes pursue.
And MeToo is about sexual harassment and sexual assault, not necessarily gender equity in media representation.
I was there last night, and I can say that I am not a huge Van Hove, but there is some interesting stuff happening in this production.
I hope that over the 2 months of previews that they smooth out a lot of the projections, because at the moment I found myself looking at the screens vs the actors, but the choreography is pretty great.
I am not going to comment on performances, because this was an open dress so I am sure that any of the technical problems I had with them will be smoothed our over previews.
I will say this about the one act structure. It actually works really well. The show moves with a great speed, and pacing is great. Now is the physical production of West Side story I would immediately go to. No? But the streamlined version works really well.
joined:4/17/17
joined:
4/17/17
Posted: 12/9/19 at 11:43am