The "New" West Side Story

[edjames]

Spielberg is filming his version and now acclaimed director Ivo Van Hove is casting his version for Broadway.

 

‘West Side Story’ revival will be more like ‘West Side Gory’

By Michael Riedel

 

Ivo van Hove certainly divides audiences and critics. Champions love the Belgian director’s stylized, ferocious whirling dervish productions. Detractors bristle at all the special effects, gadgets and gizmos.

Some gasped at the flying witches in 2016’s “The Crucible.” Others thought: Why is he getting all Peter Pan-ny on us?

But while most of van Hove’s avant-garde contemporaries are confined to BAM or the Park Avenue Armory, he’s become a Broadway baby — and box office gold. His revivals of “A View from the Bridge” and “The Crucible” made tidy profits, while “Network,” which stars Bryan Cranston and a herd of Steadicams, is grossing more than $1 million a week.

And now he’s about to tackle what could be his riskiest venture to date: a revival of the beloved musical “West Side Story.”

Musical theater fans are protective of the classics. Remember the outcry that greeted Sam Mendes’ Brechtian “Gypsy,” with Bernadette Peters, in 2003? Or the gleeful skewering of David Leveaux’s Chekhovian “Fiddler on the Roof” in 2004, with nary a Jewish actor in its shtetl?

Van Hove’s “West Side Story” is one of the most eagerly awaited productions of the 2019-2020 season. The chat boards are sure to explode seconds after the first preview, on Dec. 10.

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But I can give you a sneak peek. Van Hove this week staged a lab (unaffected by the Equity strike) that knocked out those lucky enough to see it. This is not — repeat, not — the Jerome Robbins version. For the first time ever, the Robbins estate is permitting new choreography. Van Hove is collaborating with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, whose contemporary ballets are in demand all over the world.

 

What they’ve done, sources say, is strip all trappings of the 1950s from the 1957 musical. A source describes De Keersmaeker’s dances as “violent, intensely physical, aggressive.”

 

The intensity was such that the backers who saw it believed the Sharks and the Jets really could kill each other. Casting is underway — van Hove and De Keersmaeker are conducting a nationwide search for “contemporary” dancers. No Broadway shtick, please!

It will be fun to compare van Hove’s “West Side Story” to Steven Spielberg’s movie. That director recently cast his Tony and Maria: Ansel Elgort (“Baby Driver”) and Rachel Zegler, a 17-year-old from New Jersey who posts YouTube videos of herself singing in her bathroom.

They’re both adorable, but a little traditional.

[bostonman]

Didn't we really just have a West Side Story revival? (2009-2011, to be exact?)

 

I mean, I love the show - it's among my all-time favorites. But still...

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

It's becoming like Gypsy... Every 5-8 years.

 

That said, I'd be fine if they brought in the recent Gypsy company from Chicago's Porchlight Theater. It was raw, electric and one of the most fresh versions of the show I've ever seen.

 

https://porchlightmusictheatre.org/events/gypsy/

[body2body]

The last time I saw West Side Story was at Opera Hanover in Germany in the early 90s. It was performed in English with Robbins Choreography. This classic of American Musical Theater is performed around the world. The Chatelet theatre in Paris did a splendid production of a”A Little Night Music” with Leslie Caron as Mme Armfeldt, and Kirstin Scott Thomas as Desiree. The Chatelet has also done a superb production of “My Fair Lady”.

What I’m trying to say is that the top tier of American Musicals are regarded as the equal of light Operas all over the world. “Sweeney Toddd” has been performed at the Finnish National Opera, Gothenburg Opera, Chatelet Theatre, Tokyo, Barcelona...

The Test comes for any great work comes in its ability to withstand different treatments and interpretations. I’ve seen “Antigone” performed in a modern setting at the National Theatre, Peleas et Melisande set in a Malibu Beach House. I for one will be very interested in seeing what Van Hove and De Keersmaeker will do with this great American Classic.