West Side Story – Spielberg remake (1 Viewer)

[MartinP.]

Yes. With respect to Audrey Hepburn, who did what she could, that should have been Julie Andrews. (Although, if it had been, she wouldn't have been able to do Mary Poppins, so she got the last laugh there.)

I have no problem at all with Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. On some release, they have a couple scenes, as extras, using Audrey Hepburn's singing voice in the songs. It's noted that she could have done it herself, if they'd wanted to, but they chose not to. I think both films,Lady and Poppins, had the right casting.

In regards to your larger question, the norms of the time period in which those films were made are what they are. But I'm glad that casting a star and dubbing them over doesn't happen as much anymore.

I'm guessing it doesn't happen so much now because the general public has so much more information about how movies are made and behind the scenes looks at the making of films and access to them as well, that if it happens, it's probably not talked about.

Plus, if you want to get technical, most musicals still record the songs and their own voice or not, the actors lip sync to the recordings.

How do people feel about performances like Jessica Lange lip syncing Patsy Cline's songs in Sweet Dreams or using an "almagamation of voices" as was done in Bohemian Rhapsody?

I'd much rather have someone who can sing and act the role.

Then you get arguments such as the ones heard about Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in La La Land.

Let's ponder Joe Cocker and Bob Dylan auditioning for a musical role; who would describe them as great singers?"

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I have no problem at all with Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. On some release, they have a couple scenes, as extras, using Audrey Hepburn's singing voice in the songs. It's noted that she could have done it herself, if they'd wanted to, but they chose not to. I think both films,Lady and Poppins, had the right casting.

I agree. I thought Roger Ebert put it best: "That Hepburn did not do her own singing obscures her triumph, which is that she did her own acting."

Andrews originated the role for the initial Broadway and West End runs, and probably would have done great on the silver screen. But that doesn't change the fact that Hepburn did do great on the silver screen. My Fair Lady is my all time favorite film musical, and I wouldn't change a thing about it.

 

[Chelsearicky]

^^^

Do you object that Marni Nixon also dubbed Rita Moreno's singing in the film's "Tonight" quintet?

Do you object to Deborah Kerr in The King & I?

Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady?

Do you object to the numerous British and Australian actors playing Americans?

Do you object to stunt performers standing in for actors?

For that matter, do you object to CGI standing in for actual landscapes?

Do you object to actors voicing animals in Babe?

We've become a people always looking for offense even if none is intended. Or even warranted.
Heaven knows (Mr. Allison, heh!) that there's a myriad of offense to be found if one goes looking for it.
Who wants to spend their precious time looking for it?

Rita Moreno was completely dubbed by Betty Wand for "A Boy Like That"

 

[cinemiracle]

^^^

Do you object that Marni Nixon also dubbed Rita Moreno's singing in the film's "Tonight" quintet?

Do you object to Deborah Kerr in The King & I?

Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady?

Do you object to the numerous British and Australian actors playing Americans?

Do you object to stunt performers standing in for actors?

For that matter, do you object to CGI standing in for actual landscapes?

Do you object to actors voicing animals in Babe?

We've become a people always looking for offense even if none is intended. Or even warranted.
Heaven knows (Mr. Allison, heh!) that there's a myriad of offense to be found if one goes looking for it.
Who wants to spend their precious time looking for it?

Or the numerous Americans playing Australian and British roles .

 

[MartinP.]

Or the numerous Americans playing Australian and British roles .

? ? ?

 

[TJPC]

How about almost every lead actor on “The Walking Dead”, not being American at all.

 

[Chelsearicky]

I have no problem at all with Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. On some release, they have a couple scenes, as extras, using Audrey Hepburn's singing voice in the songs. It's noted that she could have done it herself, if they'd wanted to, but they chose not to. I think both films,Lady and Poppins, had the right casting.



I'm guessing it doesn't happen so much now because the general public has so much more information about how movies are made and behind the scenes looks at the making of films and access to them as well, that if it happens, it's probably not talked about.

Plus, if you want to get technical, most musicals still record the songs and their own voice or not, the actors lip sync to the recordings.

How do people feel about performances like Jessica Lange lip syncing Patsy Cline's songs in Sweet Dreams or using an "almagamation of voices" as was done in Bohemian Rhapsody?



Then you get arguments such as the ones heard about Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in La La Land.

Let's ponder Joe Cocker and Bob Dylan auditioning for a musical role; who would describe them as great singers?"

I think Jessica Lange lip syncing Patsy Cline or Angela Basset lip syncing Tina Turner is perfectly appropriate all things considered. I also think outrage over dubbing has been highly selective over the decades. I have never read much huffing and puffing over the amount of dubbing in "The Sound of Music". Mention of Deborah Kerr's and Rita Moreno's dubbing(as well as Moreno's ethnic appropriation) in "King and I' is generally discreetly avoided. I see almost nothing re: the dubbing of male leads. When the knives get thrown on this topic, it is generally at Natalie and Audrey. It is as predictable as the certitude that Julie Andrews would have been perfect in MFL, something we will never know. I do know know that Natalie Wood's performance in WSS is highly regarded by other cast members, several of whom I met and have told me so first hand, and that the bitching around her casting continues to be perpetuated by one member of the company.

 

[cinemiracle]

? ? ?

.THE SUNDOWNERS for example -all American actors playing Australians.there have been far to many to mention here.

 

[cinemiracle]

.THE SUNDOWNERS for example -all American actors playing Australians.there have been far to many to mention here.

SUMMER THE SEVENTEENTH DOLL and SEIGE OF PINCHGUT are two more such films.

 

[MartinP.]

I guess all the Australian actors should go back to Australia and work there then?

 

[Jake Lipson]

The updated thread title courtesy The Movie Database suggests that this is coming out this year.

I know Spielberg can turn things around quickly, but with shooting starting this summer, I would be really surprised if it was ready for 2019. I feel like it will probably be a late 2020 release during Oscar season. Of course, by then Disney will be distributing it for Fox, so it's hard to tell what will happen, and I don't think it will be assigned a release date before the merger closes. We'll see.

 

[TravisR]

The updated thread title courtesy The Movie Database suggests that this is coming out this year.

I know Spielberg can turn things around quickly, but with shooting starting this summer, I would be really surprised if it was ready for 2019. I feel like it will probably be a late 2020 release during Oscar season. Of course, by then Disney will be distributing it for Fox, so it's hard to tell what will happen, and I don't think it will be assigned a release date before the merger closes. We'll see.

You're probably right but Spielberg is a machine so he might get it done for a Christmas release in New York and Los Angeles.

 

[Jake Lipson]

You're probably right but Spielberg is a machine so he might get it done for a Christmas release in New York and Los Angeles.

I suppose he could, but Cats is set for December 20, so it would have direct musical competition this year (not to mention Star Wars will be Disney's priority then.) I just feel like 2020 is a much more likely scenario. In the Heights is currently set for summer 2020, but there isn't a musical in the 2020 holiday season yet, which gives West Side Story an open berth there to service the musical crowd maybe exclusively. Given that, there doesn't seem to be any reason to rush it for 2019.

 

[Garysb]

Article about Broadway Revival opening in 2020 with previews starting in December
West Side Story’ revival will be more like ‘West Side Gory’
By Michael Riedel

January 24, 2019 | 7:04pm


Modal Trigger

A scene from the original 1957 stage production.Hank Walker/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

MICHAEL RIEDEL

Ivo van Hove certainly divides audiences and critics. Champions love the Belgian director’s stylized, ferocious whirling dervish productions. Detractors bristle at all the special effects, gadgets and gizmos.

Some gasped at the flying witches in 2016’s “The Crucible.” Others thought: Why is he getting all Peter Pan-ny on us?

But while most of van Hove’s avant-garde contemporaries are confined to BAM or the Park Avenue Armory, he’s become a Broadway baby — and box office gold. His revivals of “A View from the Bridge” and “The Crucible” made tidy profits, while “Network,” which stars Bryan Cranston and a herd of Steadicams, is grossing more than $1 million a week.

And now he’s about to tackle what could be his riskiest venture to date: a revival of the beloved musical “West Side Story.”

Musical theater fans are protective of the classics. Remember the outcry that greeted Sam Mendes’ Brechtian “Gypsy,” with Bernadette Peters, in 2003? Or the gleeful skewering of David Leveaux’s Chekhovian “Fiddler on the Roof” in 2004, with nary a Jewish actor in its shtetl?

Van Hove’s “West Side Story” is one of the most eagerly awaited productions of the 2019-2020 season. The chat boards are sure to explode seconds after the first preview, on Dec. 10.

But I can give you a sneak peek. Van Hove this week staged a lab (unaffected by the Equity strike) that knocked out those lucky enough to see it. This is not — repeat, not — the Jerome Robbins version. For the first time ever, the Robbins estate is permitting new choreography. Van Hove is collaborating with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, whose contemporary ballets are in demand all over the world.

What they’ve done, sources say, is strip all trappings of the 1950s from the 1957 musical. A source describes De Keersmaeker’s dances as “violent, intensely physical, aggressive.”

The intensity was such that the backers who saw it believed the Sharks and the Jets really could kill each other. Casting is underway — van Hove and De Keersmaeker are conducting a nationwide search for “contemporary” dancers. No Broadway shtick, please!

It will be fun to compare van Hove’s “West Side Story” to Steven Spielberg’s movie. That director recently cast his Tony and Maria: Ansel Elgort (“Baby Driver”) and Rachel Zegler, a 17-year-old from New Jersey who posts YouTube videos of herself singing in her bathroom.

They’re both adorable, but a little traditional.

 

[cinemiracle]

View attachment 54611 View attachment 54612 Article about Broadway Revival opening in 2020 with previews starting in December
West Side Story’ revival will be more like ‘West Side Gory’
By Michael Riedel

January 24, 2019 | 7:04pm


Modal Trigger

A scene from the original 1957 stage production.Hank Walker/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

MICHAEL RIEDEL
View attachment 54612
Ivo van Hove certainly divides audiences and critics. Champions love the Belgian director’s stylized, ferocious whirling dervish productions. Detractors bristle at all the special effects, gadgets and gizmos.

Some gasped at the flying witches in 2016’s “The Crucible.” Others thought: Why is he getting all Peter Pan-ny on us?

But while most of van Hove’s avant-garde contemporaries are confined to BAM or the Park Avenue Armory, he’s become a Broadway baby — and box office gold. His revivals of “A View from the Bridge” and “The Crucible” made tidy profits, while “Network,” which stars Bryan Cranston and a herd of Steadicams, is grossing more than $1 million a week.

And now he’s about to tackle what could be his riskiest venture to date: a revival of the beloved musical “West Side Story.”

Musical theater fans are protective of the classics. Remember the outcry that greeted Sam Mendes’ Brechtian “Gypsy,” with Bernadette Peters, in 2003? Or the gleeful skewering of David Leveaux’s Chekhovian “Fiddler on the Roof” in 2004, with nary a Jewish actor in its shtetl?

Van Hove’s “West Side Story” is one of the most eagerly awaited productions of the 2019-2020 season. The chat boards are sure to explode seconds after the first preview, on Dec. 10.

But I can give you a sneak peek. Van Hove this week staged a lab (unaffected by the Equity strike) that knocked out those lucky enough to see it. This is not — repeat, not — the Jerome Robbins version. For the first time ever, the Robbins estate is permitting new choreography. Van Hove is collaborating with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, whose contemporary ballets are in demand all over the world.

What they’ve done, sources say, is strip all trappings of the 1950s from the 1957 musical. A source describes De Keersmaeker’s dances as “violent, intensely physical, aggressive.”

The intensity was such that the backers who saw it believed the Sharks and the Jets really could kill each other. Casting is underway — van Hove and De Keersmaeker are conducting a nationwide search for “contemporary” dancers. No Broadway shtick, please!

It will be fun to compare van Hove’s “West Side Story” to Steven Spielberg’s movie. That director recently cast his Tony and Maria: Ansel Elgort (“Baby Driver”) and Rachel Zegler, a 17-year-old from New Jersey who posts YouTube videos of herself singing in her bathroom.

They’re both adorable, but a little traditional.

I am very strongly against having previews for any stage show. The opening night should be the first performance. If a show is not ready to be seen by the public 100% then have more rehearsals until it is ready. Making the public become guinea pigs by charging huge prices to see a show in preview is an insult. In my opinion a preview is merely a rehearsal. I performed in about 25 stage shows professionally for several companies and we never had any previews.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I am very strongly against having previews for any stage show. The opening night should be the first performance. If a show is not ready to be seen by the public 100% then have more rehearsals until it is ready.

Is this a joke? Previews are standard practice on Broadway and have been for years, especially for new works. It's not about the cast not having rehearsal time before the performances; it's about the director, and in the case of a new work, the author, being able to see what works in front of an audience. Sometimes what seems like it's going to work in the rehearsal space doesn't work in front of an audience. Theatre is a two-way medium; the actor and crew give something to the audience, and the audience responds to it in real time. You need to have audiences there in order to complete the exchange. Tons of great shows were improved by the preview period and would not be as good as they are now had they been frozen before any audiences were able to respond. If you don't like previews, don't go to them. They're always clearly indicated and no one is making you go to them. But some people actually like seeing them, myself included, to help facilitate the show being as good as it can be. Films do the same thing -- that's why the studios hold test screenings of rough cuts of things. It's part of the creative process that is vital.

(That being said, this discussion is getting a little away from the remake. While the new Broadway production will indeed be an interesting comparison point with the new film, I don't want to veer the thread entirely off track here.)

 

[Jake Lipson]

New cast members today include Corey Stoll as Lieutenant Schrank and Broadway musical veteran Brian d'Arcy James as Officer Krupke:

https://deadline.com/2019/03/corey-...steven-spielbergs-west-side-story-1202578409/

 

[Matt Hough]

New cast members today include Corey Stoll as Lieutenant Schrank and Broadway musical veteran Brian d'Arcy James as Officer Krupke:

https://deadline.com/2019/03/corey-...steven-spielbergs-west-side-story-1202578409/

Love both of those actors and am excited to see them in these parts.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Broadway musical veteran Brian d'Arcy James as Officer Krupke

That is perfect casting.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Lots more new casting today, with 40 Sharks and Jets.

The Jets are Mike Faist (as Riff), Maddie Ziegler, Brianna Abruzzo, Kyle Allen, Kyle Coffman, Ben Cook, Harrison Coll, Kevin Csolak, Kellie Drobnick, Julian Elia, Myles Erlick, Leigh-Ann Esty, Sara Esty, John Michael Fiumara, Paloma Garcia-Lee, Garett Hawe, Patrick Higgins, Sean Harrison Jones, Eloise Kropp, Lauren Leach, Jess LeProtto, Skye Mattox, Ezra Menas, Adriana Pierce, Brittany Pollack, Daniel Patrick Russell, Talia Ryder, Jonalyn Saxer, and Halli Toland.

The Sharks are David Aviles Morales, Yesenia Ayala, María Alejandra Castillo, Annelise Cepero, Andrei Chagas, Jeanette Delgado, Kelvin Delgado, Gaby Diaz, Yurel Echezarreta, Adriel Flete, Carlos E. Gonzalez, David Guzman, Jacob Guzman, Ana Isabelle, Melody Martí, Ilda Mason, Juliette Feliciano Ortiz, Edriz E. Rosa Pérez, Maria Alexis Rodriguez, Julius Anthony Rubio, Carlos Sánchez Falú, Sebastian Serra , Gabriela Soto, Ricky Ubeda, Tanairi Vazquez, Jamila Velazquez, Isabella Ward, and Ricardo Zayas.

Also, Ana Isabelle is Rosalia, who works with Maria.

More at the link: https://deadline.com/2019/04/steven...-story-casting-sharks-jets-chorus-1202596540/