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petzipellepingo West Side Story: The Jets, the Sharks, and the Making of a Classic by Richard Barrios
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From The New York Times
Apr. 16th, 2020 05:05 ampetzipellepingo Want to Listen to Musical Cast Albums? Our Top 10 Desert Island Picks
What we plan to listen to in perpetuity (or right now) in our Spotify-enabled isolation.
‘West Side Story’
Some of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard are in Leonard Bernstein’s music for this groundbreaking show from 1957 about rival street gangs in New York. And when Chita Rivera leads the sardonic anthem “America,” in the original recording, it’s with a visceral energy that turns song into dance, so that you can imagine Jerome Robbins’s original choreography.
What we plan to listen to in perpetuity (or right now) in our Spotify-enabled isolation.
‘West Side Story’
Some of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard are in Leonard Bernstein’s music for this groundbreaking show from 1957 about rival street gangs in New York. And when Chita Rivera leads the sardonic anthem “America,” in the original recording, it’s with a visceral energy that turns song into dance, so that you can imagine Jerome Robbins’s original choreography.
(no subject)
Feb. 21st, 2020 05:21 ampetzipellepingoAs ‘West Side Story’ returns to Broadway, it has a lot to say about race in America
The show’s little remembered roots tell us about the changing hierarchies in our culture.
By Warren Hoffman
Today, the 1957 musical “West Side Story” makes its return to Broadway in a radically reconceived new production by director Ivo van Hove. It’s a show that millions of people have seen onstage and screen and think they know: the white Jets finger-snapping down the street to take on the Puerto Rican Sharks, their rival gang; the score by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim that has become part of the American songbook with standards like “Tonight,” “America” and “I Feel Pretty.” And who can forget Jerome Robbins’s iconic choreography?
( Read more... )
The show’s little remembered roots tell us about the changing hierarchies in our culture.
By Warren Hoffman
Today, the 1957 musical “West Side Story” makes its return to Broadway in a radically reconceived new production by director Ivo van Hove. It’s a show that millions of people have seen onstage and screen and think they know: the white Jets finger-snapping down the street to take on the Puerto Rican Sharks, their rival gang; the score by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim that has become part of the American songbook with standards like “Tonight,” “America” and “I Feel Pretty.” And who can forget Jerome Robbins’s iconic choreography?
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Jan. 5th, 2020 04:59 ampetzipellepingo‘West Side Story’: How We Covered the Classic N.Y.C. Musical
Since its 1957 premiere, The New York Times has tracked the musical’s evolution, covering its casting, its politics and its role in the Cold War along the way.
By Jennifer Schuessler
From the time it was announced, the new revival of “West Side Story” directed by Ivo van Hove has drawn curiosity: Just how radically would the beloved classic be transformed? (What — no “I Feel Pretty”?)
But the original — with its lush Leonard Bernstein score, finger-snapping Jerome Robbins choreography and lyrics by a then little-known Stephen Sondheim — was itself hailed as startlingly new almost from its opening night, on Sept. 26, 1957.
( Read more... )
Since its 1957 premiere, The New York Times has tracked the musical’s evolution, covering its casting, its politics and its role in the Cold War along the way.
By Jennifer Schuessler
From the time it was announced, the new revival of “West Side Story” directed by Ivo van Hove has drawn curiosity: Just how radically would the beloved classic be transformed? (What — no “I Feel Pretty”?)
But the original — with its lush Leonard Bernstein score, finger-snapping Jerome Robbins choreography and lyrics by a then little-known Stephen Sondheim — was itself hailed as startlingly new almost from its opening night, on Sept. 26, 1957.
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Jul. 31st, 2019 03:47 pmpetzipellepingoHal Prince, Giant of Broadway and Reaper of Tonys, Dies at 91
By Bruce Weber
Hal Prince, the Broadway royal and prodigious Tony winner who produced or directed (and sometimes both) many of the most enduring musicals in theater history, including “West Side Story,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Cabaret,” “Sweeney Todd” and “The Phantom of the Opera,” the longest-running show in Broadway history, died on Wednesday in Reykjavik, Iceland. He was 91.
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By Bruce Weber
Hal Prince, the Broadway royal and prodigious Tony winner who produced or directed (and sometimes both) many of the most enduring musicals in theater history, including “West Side Story,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Cabaret,” “Sweeney Todd” and “The Phantom of the Opera,” the longest-running show in Broadway history, died on Wednesday in Reykjavik, Iceland. He was 91.
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(no subject)
Jul. 7th, 2019 04:45 pmpetzipellepingoMartin Charnin, Tony-Winning Annie Lyricist, Dies at 84
By Ryan McPhee
Mr. Charnin’s varied theatre career also spanned performing (including in the original West Side Story) and directing.
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By Ryan McPhee
Mr. Charnin’s varied theatre career also spanned performing (including in the original West Side Story) and directing.
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(no subject)
May. 4th, 2019 06:27 ampetzipellepingoDavid Winters, Energetic Dancer Turned Choreographer, Dies at 80
By Richard Sandomir
David Winters, who danced in the original Broadway production of “West Side Story” and then fashioned an influential if under-the-radar show business career, notably as a choreographer for Ann-Margret, Elvis Presley and others, died on April 23 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 80.
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By Richard Sandomir
David Winters, who danced in the original Broadway production of “West Side Story” and then fashioned an influential if under-the-radar show business career, notably as a choreographer for Ann-Margret, Elvis Presley and others, died on April 23 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 80.
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(no subject)
Apr. 14th, 2019 06:27 ampetzipellepingoI've been reading The Leonard Bernstein Letters and while there really isn't much in letter form due to the fact that the foursome worked together on a daily basis there is something very interesting in the book. ( Read more... )
(no subject)
Jan. 30th, 2019 09:11 ampetzipellepingoReview: An Aching Ode to Jerome Robbins’s Lost New York
For this essential New York choreographer’s centenary, a Public Library exhibition full of the joy and anxiety of postwar Manhattan.
By Jason Farago
Sometime in the early 1940s, before he became the choreographer who shaped American movement, Jerome Robbins made a little home movie on a New York rooftop. He’s goofing around, trying out a few spins and pliés.
His mother comes on to dance too; she and her son balance on one leg on the rooftop’s ledge, then he gives her a ginger twirl in a sweet, familial pas de deux. Then his father enters the picture, squatting and spinning while Jerome kicks his legs like in a Russian folk dance.
In Europe and Asia the war is raging, and the unthinkable is taking place in Jewish villages like the one his parents fled. But New York is a different world. Robbins, up on the roof, goes into an energetic solo, ending with two fast pirouettes, and then looks right at the camera with a grin that says, “If you can make it here …”
That sky-high dance is the charming preface to “Voice of My City: Jerome Robbins and New York,” on view now at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. This centenary exhibition — Robbins was born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz, in October 1918 — draws heavily on resources he bequeathed to the library, and swells with preparatory materials for ballets like “Fancy Free” and musicals like “West Side Story,” as well as reams of anxious diary entries and notes to self.
( Read more... )
For this essential New York choreographer’s centenary, a Public Library exhibition full of the joy and anxiety of postwar Manhattan.
By Jason Farago
Sometime in the early 1940s, before he became the choreographer who shaped American movement, Jerome Robbins made a little home movie on a New York rooftop. He’s goofing around, trying out a few spins and pliés.
His mother comes on to dance too; she and her son balance on one leg on the rooftop’s ledge, then he gives her a ginger twirl in a sweet, familial pas de deux. Then his father enters the picture, squatting and spinning while Jerome kicks his legs like in a Russian folk dance.
In Europe and Asia the war is raging, and the unthinkable is taking place in Jewish villages like the one his parents fled. But New York is a different world. Robbins, up on the roof, goes into an energetic solo, ending with two fast pirouettes, and then looks right at the camera with a grin that says, “If you can make it here …”
That sky-high dance is the charming preface to “Voice of My City: Jerome Robbins and New York,” on view now at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. This centenary exhibition — Robbins was born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz, in October 1918 — draws heavily on resources he bequeathed to the library, and swells with preparatory materials for ballets like “Fancy Free” and musicals like “West Side Story,” as well as reams of anxious diary entries and notes to self.
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Jan. 20th, 2019 11:47 ampetzipellepingoEver since I read that Kushner and Spielberg were using Arthur Laurents' original book as inspiration for the upcoming remake, I've been taking a closer look at it. ( Read more... )
(no subject)
Jan. 3rd, 2019 10:16 ampetzipellepingoDon McKay, 'West Side Story' Actor, Dies at 93
Don McKay, an actor, singer and dancer who portrayed Tony in three early productions of West Side Story, died Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 93.
In 1957, McKay played Tony in the backers' auditions for West Side Story on Broadway when Cheryl Crawford was the producer, then auditioned for the role after Harold Prince and Robert Griffith had taken over.
( Read more... )
Don McKay, an actor, singer and dancer who portrayed Tony in three early productions of West Side Story, died Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 93.
In 1957, McKay played Tony in the backers' auditions for West Side Story on Broadway when Cheryl Crawford was the producer, then auditioned for the role after Harold Prince and Robert Griffith had taken over.
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Aug. 23rd, 2018 12:47 pmpetzipellepingoBrash, Confident and Democratic: How Bernstein Symbolized America
Five writers on what made the protean Bernstein, born 100 years ago, one of the most indelible figures in the history of the arts.
A man, a country and an era came together in Leonard Bernstein, the musician of the American century.
After 150 years of insecurity as this country gazed across the sea at the edifices of European culture, here was the New World finally in command. Composer, conductor, arranger, pianist, television personality, star, Bernstein — a Jew, crucially, just a few years after the Holocaust — marched Mahler back into Vienna, a second wave of liberation, a musical Marshall Plan. Bold, maybe a little brash; tender, maybe a little sentimental; difficult to work with yet desperate to please: Bernstein’s qualities were America’s, too.
( Read more... )
Five writers on what made the protean Bernstein, born 100 years ago, one of the most indelible figures in the history of the arts.
A man, a country and an era came together in Leonard Bernstein, the musician of the American century.
After 150 years of insecurity as this country gazed across the sea at the edifices of European culture, here was the New World finally in command. Composer, conductor, arranger, pianist, television personality, star, Bernstein — a Jew, crucially, just a few years after the Holocaust — marched Mahler back into Vienna, a second wave of liberation, a musical Marshall Plan. Bold, maybe a little brash; tender, maybe a little sentimental; difficult to work with yet desperate to please: Bernstein’s qualities were America’s, too.
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Jul. 12th, 2018 05:57 ampetzipellepingoTough Guys Do Dance Paperback
by David Winters
David Winters has produced and directed over 80 feature films and over 200 television shows and TV movies, and is recognized as nothing short of an icon in the entertainment industry. ( Read more... )
by David Winters
David Winters has produced and directed over 80 feature films and over 200 television shows and TV movies, and is recognized as nothing short of an icon in the entertainment industry. ( Read more... )
(no subject)
Jul. 9th, 2018 05:06 ampetzipellepingoChoreographer Alan Johnson Passes Away
by Stephanie Wild
BroadwayWorld has learned Alan Johnson, the choreographer best known for his work on the film version of West Side Story, as well as The Producers and other Mel Brooks films, has passed away in his sleep this morning.
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by Stephanie Wild
BroadwayWorld has learned Alan Johnson, the choreographer best known for his work on the film version of West Side Story, as well as The Producers and other Mel Brooks films, has passed away in his sleep this morning.
( Read more... )
