Like a Lot of Ivo van Hove's bold, Often thrilling creation, this opening order is large and little at once. Through the series, reside scenes coexist or alternate with ones that are filmed, including many that happen offstage completely; detail has been blown into spectacle, and spectacle is subsumed to detail. Van Hove's West Side Story works quite differently from any we've seen before. In case the end result is occasionally murky, it's also often revelatory a significant achievement at a series whose standing as a classic compromises to freeze it in time and value.
Really, this revival of West Side Story Tacitly assumes you understand the story already--considerably as Arthur Laurents, who composed it in 1957, likely supposed that his audience was familiar with its own origin material, Romeo and Juliet. Tony (Isaac Powell) is an emeritus member of the Jets, a New York gang headed by his best buddy, Riff (Dharon E. Jones). Despite different national sources --and, in this variant, different races and ethnicities--they consider themselves Americans, unlike the Latino immigrants who constitute the rival Sharks, led by Bernardo (Amar Ramasar). When Tony falls in love with Bernardo's sister, Maria (Shareen Pimentel), catastrophe takes up the chase.
Van Hove's eye and hand are Always felt, augmented by those
of the spouse, the lighting and set designer Jan Versweyveld.
His resurrection plays tight and fast with all the text: Though
couple of significant sections are trimmed (with the noteworthy
exception of the next act's very first scene, including the song
"I Feel Pretty"), it barrels ahead in just over 100 minutes,
without the intermission.
The creation is conservative when In regards to Leonard
Bernstein's lively and still-delightful songs, played with a
complete 25-piece orchestra, also to Stephen Sondheim's lyrics.
However, the job of initial auteur-director Jerome Robbins has
largely been put aside. Teresa De Keersmaeker's choreography is
not as balletic compared to Robbins's superbly was; it's
athletic, modern, low to the floor and not very in sync. (It is
not heightened but safeguarded --not as snap and jump than stop,
drop and rollup ) However there are minutes of strong aggression
and of understated attractiveness, like a dreamy dream of love
which goes into same-sex couples and even to the deceased.
Many scenes take place in a plasma Netherworld; if Tony and
Maria sing the balcony-scene duet "Tonight," it isn't on a fire
escape but at a symbolic abstraction, where grasping blobs of
gang members tug the fans back as they reach toward each other.
Less successful is that the staging of this complex "Tonight"
quintet in the future, where the tune's five different groupings
are muddled together. Because the racial makeup of the enemy
celebrations no more puts them apart, which work drops into An
D'Huys's costumes, which come in colors of blue to the Jets and
crimson for the Sharks (the colours of the Crips and the
Bloods--and, for that matter, the Democrats and Republicans).
From the bigger dances and struggles, it's sometimes difficult
to tell who's on which side, which might be intentional. Book
official
West Side Story Broadway tickets @ Broadway Theatre, New York
from official dealer.
Not all Van Hove's gambits cover off. The manager's strength
hasn't been his sense of comedy, along with the Jets'
comic-relief amount, "Gee, Officer Krupke," lands using a dour
thud. (The tasty Pippa Pearthree discovers more real comedy in
the very small role of a frazzled adult do-gooder.) High-concept
references to modern social problems --police violence, the
boundary --enroll only glancingly. And also a late scene where
the Jets assault Bernardo's girlfriend, Anita (Yesenia Ayala),
hints into luridness.
But even though the filmic components can Be distracting from
the bigger scenes--your attention keeps getting dragged upwards
away in the heaps of flesh-and-blood dancers doing really nice
work in person--they're really powerful at the series's smaller
minutes. The strangest thing about Van Hove's West Side Story,
in actuality, is that for most of its gestures and statements,
it's in its best when it focuses on the fundamental connection
between Tony and Maria, that frequently gets lost in different
productions.
Powell, together with his sweet style and achingly wonderful
voice, is outstanding: This is actually the very first West Side
Story I have seen where Tony appears completely and compellingly
since the show's central character. (When he seems out the
syllables of the lover's name in "Maria," awestruck, that makes
the song seem totally spontaneous ) Pimentel not just has a
stunning soprano but also the acting ability to pull off the
hard final monologue. The camera enables us to observe minutes
of closeness and charm which create their story heartbreakingly
personal; in the conclusion of "One Hand, One Heart" when Tony
and Maria are listening to each other, their breath fogs the
mirror between them.
Van Hove's West Side Story is Likely to split admirers of this
series into warring camps. However, the revival approaches that
the series together with the assurance of knowing that it
doesn't have to be definitive. There'll be additional West Side
Story therefore, such as Steven Spielberg's movie later this
season. Meanwhile, even if Broadway is still a place where
artistic danger is appreciated, there is a place for it.
Whittled down to a hour and forty-five moments, "West Side
Story" -- together with publication by Arthur Laurents, music by
Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, And choreography
by Jerome Robbins -- has grown tremendously dim and mislaid a
number of its moving components from the
new Broadway revival from edgy Belgian manager Ivo Van Hove.
(Would you endure to lose"I Feel Pretty"?) However, the plot of
the beloved musical stays intact: We're still seeing the mortal
ethnic-fueled violence of two rival street gangs ruin the
Romeo-and-Juliet love of these immortal young fans, Maria and
Tony.
Together with her soaring soprano and beguiling atmosphere of
innocence, newcomer Shereen Pimentel creates a touching and
sweet Maria, who wants to withstand the Strict social reports of
her Puerto Rican family when she falls in love Using a
neighborhood gang-banger. Isaac Powell, blessed with a true
voice along with a Rare caliber of gentle masculinity, makes
Maria's teenaged lover, Tony, Look even more vulnerable than she
is. Their glorious love tunes, "Somewhere" and "Tonight," would
melt down the most freezing of hearts.
Long Island’s Leader in Family Fun Since 1962