On Saturday January 16th, my whole family went to New York City to see the Broadway revival of the classic West Side Story. We were planning to attend the matinee show on a weekend, so we hoped that we wouldn't have a total blow out show with all understudies. Thank goodness we didn't!
One big thing that really should be proven to everyone is the whole thing about seating in a theatre. Just because your ticket isn't the most expensive ticket and it’s not right in front of the stage doesn't mean it’s a bad seat! For West Side Story we were actually in the center orchestra, but our seats were in the last row, about in the middle of the section. The nice thing about the Palace Theatre is that it was actually a fantastic seat, because you could see everything right in front of you without having to be looking straight up, or turn your head. I have sat in both orchestra about 10 rows from stage, and I have sat in middle mezzanine. Either or they were both great seats.
Anyway, the show was also fantastic. I have seen the movie, but never a stage production so I was extremely excited to see the different aspects of the show, like sets, props, costumes, etc. The first couple minutes of the show all you could really do was take in all the set design and the couple gang members who were on stage. Yet, the first ten, fifteen minutes of the show can be quite boring because it just seems to last forever since you want to see Maria, Anita, and Tony. But the dancing and the fighting from the start of the show to the end was phenomenal. Once the scene changed to the Bridal shop, my eyes were glued to the stage. I felt so lucky to see Karen Olivo and Josefina Scaglione's performances. Matthew Hydzik was equally great. When the whole Dance at the Gym sequence started, I totally forgot this but I realized they did this number on the 2009 Tony Awards. But then I realized that they added a little portion of "Tonight" for their Tony Performance, and all I could remember was Maria totally cracking on her high note. Otherwise that performance was great so I was anxious to hear her voice now since she doesn't sing a note till "Tonight".
The voices that the whole company had was incredible, especially the leads. As most people know, or some may not, in the movie the four leads actually have voice over’s, and the speaking in the movie with the Spanish accents just seems very unnatural and fake. In this production, the Spanish accents were actual Spanish accents. I realized this because of Josefina Scaglione. She is originally from Argentia and is actually a professional Opera Singer, who has done some argentine productions, such as Hairspray and Cinderella. When she first sang in "Tonight" it was very different to my ear since I take voice lessons from an opera singer locally, and just so used to hearing the typical "American" singing. But then I realized that there are differences between singing with a real accent, and a fake one. So after then Josefina did absolutely amazing with her vocals, especially in her duet with Karen Olivo in "A Boy Like That\ I Have A Love".
One thing I noticed that is different from the movie of West Side Story is that on stage they do change some sequences\settings\ people who are in certain scenes\songs. The first example is actually right after Maria & Tony meet at the dance, the whole scene totally goes black and it goes right into "Maria", then directly into the window\balcony scene which goes into "Tonight". Also, they changed up "America" a bit by just making it an all girl number since the sharks are all at Doc's for the meeting. Also, "Gee, Officer Krupke" and "Cool" switch places, so Action sings "GOK", not Riff. Personally, I enjoyed these changes because it wasn't exactly what I was expecting so I like when you go to a show and something totally new, or just changed happens.
My new favorite scenes\songs are now "The Quintet" and "Somewhere" because of the slight changes that were made to these scenes, which just made them 100% more amazing. In the quintet, I really like the Spanish added so there was even more than 4 parts being sang. In the entire show the Spanish was a big enhancer because it gave a new characteristic to the Jets how they hate the Sharks even more and don't care about them because they don't take the time to understand the Spanish. It was quite humorous when a couple lines were used by the Jets who were trying to speak Spanish. Back to “The Quintet,” the whole set usage, placing, lighting, and even adding in\ diving some people's parts really gave it a little extra "pzazz". Such as, they broke up the first part of Maria's part and gave it to Tony and also added a couple singing lines to Riff which made it quite interesting. The only downer was during the Quintet I could barely hear Anita and it was kind of disappointing because she had a wonderful voice, perfect for the character and I just wanted to hear more. In “Somewhere,” the director added a whole new sequence which made the fantasy of the Jets and Sharks getting along even a little more realistic. Maria and Tony first started off in her bedroom, but they blacked out the scene for a minute or two dance breaks, but then the lights came back on and it was a whole dance sequence with the entire company. The thing that just put the icing on the cake was there is this little boy in the show and you see him a couple times during the first Act, but you really have no idea what his part is until now. The little boy "Kiddo" breaks into "Somewhere" which is just heartbreaking and so adorable, I actually started to tear up. It was just so perfect, and the dream of Maria and Tony finding "Somewhere" to go felt more realistic.
Costumes were also a big part of the show, and defiantly came through. In the beginning with the prologue and the "Jet Song", the mood of the show is quite obvious along with the setting, etc. With the costumes, they go right along with that mood and all those other story elements. The thing I especially liked was the difference of color schemes between the gangs. The Sharks were dressed in purples\dull browns\beige, etc. The Jets were like orange, red, blue, lots of denim, etc. The Sharks girls were extremely colorful, just as expected. Maria's costumes were very simple, but it went with her character just fine. Her colors were white and light blue. Very simple. But of course, all the costumes fit the time era exceptionally well.
So this revival of West Side Story was just plain amazing. Yet it still had new and different aspects of it, but it didn't take away from the classic at all; if anything it made it even better. Again, I felt so lucky to be able to see the original four leads, even after West Side Story has been on Broadway for almost a year in February. So chances are they will be leaving soon. But I most defiantly would recommend to go see this show with them in it, it’s worth every penny. You will NOT be let down, because you'll be getting goosebumps up and down your spine from the loud sounds and lots of words (haha) from Leonard Bernstein’s and Stephen Sondheim's classic, West Side Story at the Palace Theatre.
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