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petzipellepingo#SomewhereProject was nominated for @Americans4Arts 2017 Robert E. Gard Award! Revisit our #WestSideStory production
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Mar. 6th, 2016 04:49 pmpetzipellepingoReview: Carnegie Hall’s ‘West Side Story’ at the Knockdown Center
By CHARLES ISHERWOOD
The headlong energy of youth was on ample — no, make that spectacular — display over the weekend in Maspeth, Queens, at the Knockdown Center, a former factory where a wonderfully energized, energizing production of “West Side Story” was presented for just three performances, under the auspices of Carnegie Hall and the Weill Music Institute.
A culmination of the Somewhere Project, a citywide exploration of that classic 1957 musical that began in January, the production mixed professional actors with 15 high-school-aged apprentices in the cast, supplemented by a whopping chorus of 200 high school singers from 26 schools representing all five boroughs. Conducting the lush 40-piece orchestra was the eminent Marin Alsop, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, who was once a protégée of Leonard Bernstein, the composer of “West Side Story,” of course.
The site was fitting for this nontraditional but nevertheless faithful production, which essentially dispensed with sets and featured simple, contemporary costumes by Tracy Christensen. The show was performed on a long, rectangular stage made to resemble a strip of roadway — a drag strip, you might say — with the audience seated on three sides, some at tables and some in bleacherlike seating.
( Read more... )
By CHARLES ISHERWOOD
The headlong energy of youth was on ample — no, make that spectacular — display over the weekend in Maspeth, Queens, at the Knockdown Center, a former factory where a wonderfully energized, energizing production of “West Side Story” was presented for just three performances, under the auspices of Carnegie Hall and the Weill Music Institute.
A culmination of the Somewhere Project, a citywide exploration of that classic 1957 musical that began in January, the production mixed professional actors with 15 high-school-aged apprentices in the cast, supplemented by a whopping chorus of 200 high school singers from 26 schools representing all five boroughs. Conducting the lush 40-piece orchestra was the eminent Marin Alsop, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, who was once a protégée of Leonard Bernstein, the composer of “West Side Story,” of course.
The site was fitting for this nontraditional but nevertheless faithful production, which essentially dispensed with sets and featured simple, contemporary costumes by Tracy Christensen. The show was performed on a long, rectangular stage made to resemble a strip of roadway — a drag strip, you might say — with the audience seated on three sides, some at tables and some in bleacherlike seating.
( Read more... )
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Mar. 6th, 2016 02:38 ampetzipellepingoCarnegie Hall's West Side Story, Staged in a Queens Warehouse with Skylar Astin and Newcomer Morgan Hernandez, is a Musical Miracle
By Paul Wontorek
There’s nothing like a multi-million dollar slick staging of a classic Broadway musical featuring the best acting talents available and the greatest creative team money can buy. Then again, seeing the same classic on a high school or community theater level can prove just as exhilarating, with raw, wide-eyed talents giving the material a freshness that’s undeniable. The Carnegie Hall production of the Weill Music Institute staging of West Side Story, set in a warehouse in Queens called the Knockdown Center for just one weekend, offers the best of both worlds and for this 57-year-old icon of a show, the results are nothing short of miraculous.
The Sharks and the Jets are still rumbling, on a long jet runway of a stage, and the Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim score still throbs and pulses like the New York City of our dreams, especially played by a full orchestra led by music director Marin Alsop and music supervisor Leslie Stifelman. But this isn’t your grandpa's West Side Story. For one, hip hop choreographer Sean Cheesman has added new choreography to the show, which also features much of the original Jerome Robbins dance, recreated for the space by Julio Monge, a Broadway vet who actually danced as a Shark under Robbins’ eye in Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. For fans of the original, it’s jolting to see sequences like the Dance at the Gym conceived with a new eye, but Cheesman’s work fits beautifully into Robbins’ and has a modern twist that's vital to this new production’s success.
( Read more... )
By Paul Wontorek
There’s nothing like a multi-million dollar slick staging of a classic Broadway musical featuring the best acting talents available and the greatest creative team money can buy. Then again, seeing the same classic on a high school or community theater level can prove just as exhilarating, with raw, wide-eyed talents giving the material a freshness that’s undeniable. The Carnegie Hall production of the Weill Music Institute staging of West Side Story, set in a warehouse in Queens called the Knockdown Center for just one weekend, offers the best of both worlds and for this 57-year-old icon of a show, the results are nothing short of miraculous.
The Sharks and the Jets are still rumbling, on a long jet runway of a stage, and the Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim score still throbs and pulses like the New York City of our dreams, especially played by a full orchestra led by music director Marin Alsop and music supervisor Leslie Stifelman. But this isn’t your grandpa's West Side Story. For one, hip hop choreographer Sean Cheesman has added new choreography to the show, which also features much of the original Jerome Robbins dance, recreated for the space by Julio Monge, a Broadway vet who actually danced as a Shark under Robbins’ eye in Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. For fans of the original, it’s jolting to see sequences like the Dance at the Gym conceived with a new eye, but Cheesman’s work fits beautifully into Robbins’ and has a modern twist that's vital to this new production’s success.
( Read more... )
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Mar. 5th, 2016 03:42 pmpetzipellepingoCarnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute is presenting West Side Story this weekend in three performances only March 4, 5, and 6, 2016, at the Knockdown Center.
Check out highlights from the performance here!
Check out highlights from the performance here!
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Mar. 5th, 2016 07:15 ampetzipellepingoThe @carnegiehall #WestSideStory cast w/@biancamarroquin as Anita gets an opening night visit from @Chita_Rivera!
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Mar. 4th, 2016 01:34 pmpetzipellepingoCarnegie Hall's large-scale production of West Side Story stars Skylar Astin as Tony, Bianca Marroquín as Anita and Morgan Hernandez, an 18-year-old student at the Boston Conservatory, as Maria. The production plays the Knockdown Center, a 50,000-square-foot former factory located in Maspeth, Queens that now serves as a "space dedicated to cross-disciplinary projects and collaborations.” The cast also includes 14 area high school students as well as a chorus of some 200 students from 25 high schools that sing new choral arrangements created for the production by Thomas Cabaniss. Amanda Dehnert and Marin Alsop helm the production.
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Feb. 27th, 2016 09:11 ampetzipellepingoRiff, Tony and Bernardo!! Who is pumped about #WestSideStory ! @SkylarAstin I'm so proud! #SomewhereProject ❤️
Anita in the making #somewhere project @carnegiehall rehearsal process!
Interview: From Roxie Hart to Anita in ‘West Side Story’, Bianca Marroquín Conquers the World, One Song at a Time
( Read more... )
Anita in the making #somewhere project @carnegiehall rehearsal process!
Interview: From Roxie Hart to Anita in ‘West Side Story’, Bianca Marroquín Conquers the World, One Song at a Time
( Read more... )
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Feb. 19th, 2016 04:05 ampetzipellepingoLarge-Scale NYC West Side Story Revival Sets Cast of Nearly 50 and Chorus of 200
By Andrew Gans
Complete casting has been announced for Carnegie Hall's large-scale revival of West Side Story, which will be presented March 4-6 at the Knockdown Center, a restored 50,000-square-foot factory located in Queens. As previously reported, the cast will be headed by Spring Awakening and "Pitch Perfect" singing actor Skylar Astin as Tony, Bianca Marroquín (Chicago, In The Heights, The Pajama Game) as Anita and Morgan Hernandez, an 18-year-old currently studying at the Boston Conservatory, who will make her New York debut as Maria.
( Read more... )
By Andrew Gans
Complete casting has been announced for Carnegie Hall's large-scale revival of West Side Story, which will be presented March 4-6 at the Knockdown Center, a restored 50,000-square-foot factory located in Queens. As previously reported, the cast will be headed by Spring Awakening and "Pitch Perfect" singing actor Skylar Astin as Tony, Bianca Marroquín (Chicago, In The Heights, The Pajama Game) as Anita and Morgan Hernandez, an 18-year-old currently studying at the Boston Conservatory, who will make her New York debut as Maria.
( Read more... )
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Feb. 6th, 2016 03:26 ampetzipellepingoAll the City’s a Stage for the Somewhere Project’s ‘West Side Story'
By Zoe Leverant
Any story about New York is eventually a story about place: The most famous city in the world is full of thousands of smaller stories about places and the struggles over them. The struggle is harder for some than for others, and sometimes those small stories grow into bigger ones that get remembered and written down. There is perhaps no better example of this than West Side Story. And for the first time since 2011, it is coming home.
To celebrate its 125th anniversary, Carnegie Hall created the Somewhere Project, which brings the music and themes of West Side Story to all five boroughs throughout the 2015–2016 season. Its capstone is a full production of the original play, running March 4–6 at the massive Queens arts complex the Knockdown Center. Leonard Bernstein protégée Marin Alsop conducts the orchestra; noted director Amanda Dehnert takes the helm; and Skylar Astin, of Spring Awakening and the Pitch Perfect films, stars as Tony, with Broadway veteran Bianca Marroquín as Anita and newcomer Morgan Hernandez making her New York debut as Maria.
( Read more... )
By Zoe Leverant
Any story about New York is eventually a story about place: The most famous city in the world is full of thousands of smaller stories about places and the struggles over them. The struggle is harder for some than for others, and sometimes those small stories grow into bigger ones that get remembered and written down. There is perhaps no better example of this than West Side Story. And for the first time since 2011, it is coming home.
To celebrate its 125th anniversary, Carnegie Hall created the Somewhere Project, which brings the music and themes of West Side Story to all five boroughs throughout the 2015–2016 season. Its capstone is a full production of the original play, running March 4–6 at the massive Queens arts complex the Knockdown Center. Leonard Bernstein protégée Marin Alsop conducts the orchestra; noted director Amanda Dehnert takes the helm; and Skylar Astin, of Spring Awakening and the Pitch Perfect films, stars as Tony, with Broadway veteran Bianca Marroquín as Anita and newcomer Morgan Hernandez making her New York debut as Maria.
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Oct. 10th, 2015 04:27 pmpetzipellepingoSomething's Coming! Skylar Astin & Bianca Marroquin Will Headline West Side Story
By Imogen Lloyd Webber
Tonight, tonight! Skylar Astin and Bianca Marroquín will play Tony and Anita, respectively, in a Carnegie Hall presentation of West Side Story. Directed by Amanda Dehnert, performances will take place from March 4, 2016 through March 6 at the Knockdown Center, a restored factory in Queens.
Joining Astin (Spring Awakening, Pitch Perfect) and Marroquín (Chicago, In The Heights, The Pajama Game) will be newcomer Morgan Hernandez, who is set to take on the role of Maria. Additional cast members will be announced later.
( Read more... )
By Imogen Lloyd Webber
Tonight, tonight! Skylar Astin and Bianca Marroquín will play Tony and Anita, respectively, in a Carnegie Hall presentation of West Side Story. Directed by Amanda Dehnert, performances will take place from March 4, 2016 through March 6 at the Knockdown Center, a restored factory in Queens.
Joining Astin (Spring Awakening, Pitch Perfect) and Marroquín (Chicago, In The Heights, The Pajama Game) will be newcomer Morgan Hernandez, who is set to take on the role of Maria. Additional cast members will be announced later.
( Read more... )
