West Side Story is a timeless classic, but despite six decades of history, you've never seen a production like this one. Under the direction of the innovative Ivo van Hove, the beloved story of star-crossed lovers and rival gangs takes on a more urgent and modern context. Featuring original choreography by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and a stage and video design by Jan Versweyveld, this West Side Story offers a radical, thrilling new interpretation of this iconic work, featuring 33 young performers making their Broadway debuts. Don't miss this opportunity to see a landmark in musical theater history as if for the very first time.
Rather, in Belgian director Ivo van Hove's finger-snapping-free staging, there's a gigantic movie wall behind a mainly spare stage, contemporary apparel and a ferocity not observed given that the musical's 1957 premiere, when The Post's Richard Watts Jr. called it the tale of "the ugliness and horror of a war to the dying among the boys." With that in thoughts, van Hove's visceral acquire is spot-on for 2020. As very long as kids are still getting born into a "lousy" entire world, "West Side Story" should not be a journey down memory lane - it must be uncooked and real.
For all its high-concept minimalism, the production tends to tackle certain themes, like immigration and police brutality, with a literalism that borders on cliché: stock footage of Puerto Rico to match the "tropical breezes" bits in "America," and rippling stars and stripes when it crosses over; a pair of grizzled cop characters who feel both malevolent and silly in their central-casting bravado. (The iPhone cameras that several gang members hold aloft when one of those officers threatens to get rough conveys the message far more effectively, without saying a word).
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