I went to see West Side Story on Broadway with my mom Friday night. It. Was. AWESOME! I've never been a fan of musicals, but for some reason, I fell in love with it as a small child and watched it over and over. Then I "stole" the soundtrack (a cassette tape! ha! remember those?!) from my parents and listened to THAT over and over. I loved every single song, knew all the lyrics...and never forgot them.
Mom found out a few months ago this was coming to Broadway and immediately asked if I'd go. How could I say no to that!? ('Specially with Mom treating me! :-P)
(SPOILERZ ahead!)
This musical was GREAT! The dancing, the costumes, all of it: AMAZING. Anita was FANTASTIC and Maria was perfect. Didn't like that guys QUITE as much, but I think it's just because I don't find dudes dancing and singing like that as appealing as women doing it, but they were all really good. haha
I was a little worried because she'd read reviews leading up to our show night that said that all the Sharks and their ladies only spoke Spanish. There were a bunch of moments with the Spanish, but most were minor things that were easy to follow. I suppose the worst of it was the two songs that were sung in Spanish: I Feel Pretty and A Boy Like That/I Have a Love. That was a little upsetting, but also kind of cool, considering I knew all the original words anyway.
There really isn't much to complain about. I wasn't TOO thrilled with some of the updated lyrics...just seemed a little unnecessary, but certainly wasn't horrible. Oh, and for some strange reason they moved the I Feel Pretty and Officer Krupke sequences to AFTER the rumble...again, don't know what purpose that served. But I was just relieved they weren't cut (as I had thought before the intermission)!
Oh, but one added scene was really cool. It was like a dream sequence of Maria and Tony's where everyone gets along. It was just a cool dance scene with a little kid singing the Somewhere song. The kid bit was weird, but the Sharks and Jets dancing together was cool.
All in all, this was great and highly recommended for anyone who likes musicals, West Side Story or just wants to see a great show! Here're some pics I stole from their website:
(I love the Shark ladies dresses! Especially Anitas! I want one!)
(Maria is GORGEOUS.)
(Loved watching the ladies dance!)
(Not the TOUGHEST fight scenes ever...hahaha)
The End.
3 comments:
Thanks for the review! FYI: In the original Broadway production,, the Krupke song takes place after the rumble, and "Cool" earlier. They swapped them for the film. I think for good reason, because "Cool" plays really well in those tense scenes after the rumble, where "Krupke" is too light-hearted. I guess they originally wanted to break the tension after the rumble. Works better the other way, IMHO.
Yeah, that's exactly what I thought! Krupke seemed WAY too lighthearted after the sad outcome of the rumble!!!
I Feel Pretty is in Spanish now? Interesting,considering Sondheim's said for a long time that he screwed up and gave Maria far too good of English for that song and would have loved to change it before the song became popular. Putting it in Spanish fixes that problem quite well.
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