West Side Snory

I don't think the New York reviewers will be kind to the new production of West Side Story.   Though the show has beautiful music and the sets -- particularly the transformation of the stage to the under the highway rumble set, was amazing --  and the two female leads also were very good -- this is not a show I would recommend.   

There was a lot I didn't like.  The male leads were adequate, but dull.  I don't understand what Maria saw in this Tony to make her risk everything.  The show just seemed long and dated -- very dated.  If the Spanish singing was suppose to make it seemed more updated, it did not.  I'd advise them to go back to English.  Sometimes the Puerto Ricans sang and spoke in Spanish and sometimes they sang and spoke in English.  I assume this is how it works in real life, but I don't speak much Spanish and did not understand what they were saying much of the time.  There were prolonged periods of singing and dialogue that were entirely in Spanish.  It was my understanding that they would going to have surtitles above the stage, but they did not.   It would have been nice.

I was hoping to like this show, but was very disappointed.  Overall, the sound was not good.  The orchestra sounded muffled and the actors sound level also seemed low.  Also, the theater became uncomfortably hot during the show, and I was just wishing it would end.  It never seemed to end.  I wanted to shout out, "Die already!"" during the dramatic and prolonged ending scene.  If you are in NYC and want to see a good show, go to Billy Elliot.  

Going to this show did cause me to have a couple flashbacks.  I remember when I was in elementary school, and the movie of West Side Story was shown on TV.  The next day on the playground, all the boys went around bouncing into a hunched position and snapping their fingers pretending they were Jets or Sharks.  They thought they were being cool, but looking back on it, it seemed very gay.  The other memory I had was a Laverne and Shirley episode when the gang was trying out for parts in a production of West Side Story.   The production I saw could have used the Big Ragu!

I tried to find a clip on YouTube from the Laverne and Shirley show on West Side Story, but I couldn't find one.  What I did find was a better train wreck.  There is a sketch, I assume from the old Cher variety show, where Cher plays all the parts in West Side Story.  It was in two parts and about 14 minutes long, and what I did watch of it, was hilarious.   The sound quality is horrible on the clips I found and it was long, so I didn't link it, but it is very easy to find if you want to see it.  It is something.