Comments

1
WHO THE FUCK IS JENNA LECHNER? IS THIS A NEW INTERN?
2
@Graham - She's been around since March!

Her first post was great, and I still plan on getting myself one.

Also, Scrummy's profile pic perfectly matches his last comment.

http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/Blogto…
3
Jenna is a former arts intern who made the perilous leap to freelancer a few months ago.
4
I'm always curious what the best WSS production actually looks like. Then ones I've seen (including the one PCS put on when it opened) have been entertaining nights out but average in comparison to the film. The dancing just can't be replicated on stage. Nothing's come close to the amazing athleticism of the school dance scenes.

If I remember correctly from the DVD, Robbins was released half-way through the making of the film for basically being a prick and I wonder if the tight hold the estate has on productions has to do with this still.
5
The O claimed that this was a grittier, more realistic version of the story. That claim ran with that photo. I laughed my dick off.
6
I would be in so many gangs if real gangs snapped all the time.
7
@Graham, yea, I've been here since last February (as intern, at least). THANKS FOR NOTICING. Btw I think I met your girlfriend at the holiday party. But not you.
And, @TSW, they released a new, blu-ray, 50-year anniversary edition of WSS this past year, and it has a lot of cool extras. Not sure about the Robbins thing, but sounds about right.
8
The Broadway stage revival of West Side Story that my sister in law, my niece and I saw in late June of 2011 was enjoyable, but, being a devout fan of the film version of WSS who's also seen several really good stage productions of West Side Story prior to seeing this one, there were a number of things that bothered me about this particular revival of the Broadway stage version of West Side Story:

A) The finger-snapping and the Jet gang whistles, which, imho, were a rather vital part of the story in the stage production and the film version, were taken out of this revival of West Side Story altogether. It's a shame, because it's sort of messing with a classic.

B) It's all very well to have the Sharks speaking in Spanish, which is an interesting idea on the face of it, but this, too, is another example of messing with a classic.

C) Having seen a number of other stage productions of West Side Story that I found very good, I also felt that, while the dancing was good, and some of the voices were good in this latest WSS stage production, I have never before seen a production of West Side Story that sort of screamed at you pretty much the whole time, and that was so overly emoted by the various characters. Inotherwords, this particular production was somewhat bombastic for my tastes. Moreover, Tony's singing voice sounded very artificial, with very slow, wide vibratos that one could practically skip-rope through (if one gets the drift), plus Tony's singing voice sounded really forced in many places.

D) The basic musical score was retained, and it was interestingly, a somewhat more jazzed up flavor, but it did sound somewhat shrill and tinny in many places.

E) In both the film version of West Side Story and the several other stage productions of WSS that I've seen prior to this particular production, several Jets and Sharks come together in the end to carry Tony's body off after he's been shot, providing a ray of hope, and hinting of a possibility of reconciliation between both sides. Unfortunately, this production of West Side Story lacked that scene in the end, which was sort of a downer.

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