I was just coming here to post those! Those are my favorite numbers in the show, I'm not sure if I would have chosen them to sell it, though, especially not to an audience that expects the movie.
It's a testament to Leonard Berstein's music and Jerome Robbins' choreography that "Cool" can still be somewhat exciting even when performed with no pizazz (the girls are very good, but there's only three of them). And I know that it's the morning, but "America" is worse than it was on Letterman. I don't care how well Karen Olivo acts in Act 2, I want those jumps back in NOW.
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.
Not dig on the show .. but a dig on the floor director for GMA.. why oh why when you have a song like America where the dancing is "the thing" about the number.. are you going to go to a shot of the two girls sitting on the stairs doing nothing instead of using a wide shot to show the dancing.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
I love Graziella. Can't wait to see what she does next.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
Ok so "Cool" wasn't that bad (except for the singing.)
But "America" ugh! No energy and no life and basic dancing. And I think that is Rosalia who sings the other part, I hate to say it but her voice is just grating.
The America number is good but not GREAT! Just saw Debbie Allen's youtube video and she was electrifying! Chita must have been FFFFFFFFAAAAANTASTIC!!!!
PJ is right. What a missed opportunity for us (new generation of theater enthusiasts) to be denied to see the FULL brilliance of Jerome Robbin's Choreography in America! oh well...
Being a lurker on this website, I have been hearing all this critism about the new production of 'West Side Story' and never really got it. I watch these clips, and I get a pretty good idea. "Cool"'s choreography I hink was good, but something was missing from that number to make it exciting. It wasn't bad, just... lacking. And I can see how the dancing in "America" was really toned down for Karen. It actually looks like stuff I could do, and I have never taken a dance class in my life. xD *sighs* Maybe it's better live, but from the way things are looking I wouldn't make a eleven hour drive to New York to see it. (Well maybe I would just so I could see a broadway production at all, but you get what I mean.)
Being a lurker on this website, I have been hearing all this critism about the new production of 'West Side Story' and never really got it. I watch these clips, and I get a pretty good idea. "Cool"'s choreography I hink was good, but something was missing from that number to make it exciting. It wasn't bad, just... lacking. And I can see how the dancing in "America" was really toned down for Karen. It actually looks like stuff I could do, and I have never taken a dance class in my life. xD *sighs* Maybe it's better live, but from the way things are looking I wouldn't make a eleven hour drive to New York to see it. (Well maybe I would just so I could see a broadway production at all, but you get what I mean.)
UNREMARKABLE. Great liberties were taken with Gennaro's original choreography for the AMERICA number. Where is the infamous arm swaying to punctuate the word hurricane? What is that bit of nonsense Karen is doing as she sings the word diseases? The "can can" move in the number looks pedestrian, talk about dumbing it down, they stand there still, left leg in mid air moving it side to side with one arm behind their heads and the other on their hip?!!! They are supposed to LIFT. THOSE. SKIRTS. GOTTDAMMIT!!!
There is no flow to any of the moves, no energy, no spark.
The more clips I see of this bastardization the more I'm convinced I won't be going to see it on Broadway.
I think the director and/or camerman were smart. They watched the number in rehearsal and knew then and there they couldnt feature Anita as she had no spark. It's that simple.
The COOL number fared better visually, but still no spark. Yes, that Graziella is a scene stealer !!!!