Macy's Thanksgiving Parade

Here are some of the performances from Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Enjoy!


Natalie Cortez and the girls of West Side Story


Sutton Foster and the cast of Shrek


The Cast of Ragtime


Trent Kowalik and the cast of Billy Elliot performing Shine


Gavin Creel and the cast of Hair performing Aquarius

Web Site Story

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

The brilliant folks at CollegeHumor.com present this updated version of you guessed it, West Side Story! My, my if Leonard Bernstein could see it now!

Libertango

If you're wondering about the title, well, it's the youtube video of Josefina Scaglione which got her an audition with Arthur Laurents for the current revival of West Side Story. Now, she's a Tony nominee for the role of Maria! Read more about her Broadway journey here.

Pretty and Witty and Bright

I love dance. And I am always in awe of people who dance well and make it seem really easy. So it's not so surprising that I loved this show. In fact, I love it more than the movie. The choreography and staging of the dance sequence is so dynamic I found myself riveted. I don't think you get a sense of that in the movie. Just the prologue where the audience is introduced to the Jets and the Sharks and their ethnic war had them dancing all over the urban jungle set grabs your attention immediately. It's full of energy and very kinetic. That, and the score is the beauty of this production.

I did feel that the show's love story plot, taken from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, is a bit "forced" since Tony and Maria fall in love immediately after meeting at the dance (or maybe that's just me being jaded). But I'm willing to overlook that because of the phenomenal dancing in the show. Special mention made to Cody Green (who plays Riff). I first noticed his talent in the reality show Step It Up and Dance where he ended up winning the competition. Even then his dancing is so masculine and yet very graceful. It's even more evident in this production. I found my eyes being drawn to watch him during the dance sequences. Also equally quite impressive is Curtis Holbrook (who plays hot head Action) and George Akram (who plays Bernardo). For the girls it's scene stealer Karen Olivo (who plays Anita) that was remarkable. She doesn't only have a very impressive voice but lovely lines when she dances. My favorite number is America and Cool. Both are very exciting. I must also say that the chorus seemed to be enjoying performing together and dancing Jerome Robbin's intricate choreography.

Now to Tony and Maria. Josefina Scaglioni (who plays Maria) has a beautiful angelic voice and Matt Cavenaugh (who plays Tony) has a voice that could have one melt. They were good actors but I think the characters they play are the least developed in the story. Their characters seem one dimensional to me compared to Riff or Anita. I do agree with Lani that the age difference between the two is evident even where we were sitting high up in the mezzanine.

The set is stunning. It's an urban jungle. During the rumble part, wire fences came down to separate the stage from the audience and enclosed the cast. At the same time, a silhouette of the bridge overhead also descends from the rafters. It does take the audience to that setting or at least that was my experience.

Go see it. It's only once in a while an iconic piece such as this is produced. Hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as I did. For more info, check out the West Side Story site.

the poster on the side of the theatre

Some photos from the stagedoor:

Kyle Coffman (A-rab)

Joey Haro (Chino)

George Akram (Bernardo)

Sam Rogers (4H) and Mike Canon (Snowboy)

Curtis Holbrook (Action)

Josefina Scaglioni (Maria)

Matt Cavenaugh (Tony)

Karen Olivo (Anita)

Cody Green (Riff)

WSS stagedoor

My Side of the Story

Cody Green as Riff
21 year old Argentinian Josefina Scaglione as Maria. Her vocal range is stratospheric! Wonderful Broadway debut.
Powerhouse Karen Olivo who's perfect as the spitfire Anita. I hope she gets a Tony nomination. She owned the stage everytime she was on. When Anita went to Doc's, she looked like she could have taken all the Jets down single-handedly.
George Akram as Bernardo
Matt Cavenaugh as Tony. Interesting casting choice because he's nowhere near what I thought Tony would look or sound like.
"America" was a highlight for me.

Robbins. Sondheim. Bernstein. Laurents. West Side Story. How can you go wrong? Seen the movie a few times. Had the album with Kiri Te Kanawa and even The Songs of WSS 1996 pop album. I was genuinely excited as the lights went down and I heard the familiar strains.
But something did go wrong, at least in this audience member's mind. Maybe my inner cynic/Jon Stewart/Joel McHale were to blame: I couldn't help thinking that if these teenaged boys were as tough as they pretend to be, they wouldn't be having balletic dance-offs *pause for gasps of indignation from dance fans*.

I thought Tony looked old enough to know better than to run around with hooligans. Sondheim has said that Tony and Maria were meant to be "one-dimensional characters for a melodrama". Our star-crossed lovers were meant to live in their own bubble. So no personal journeys or character arcs. Only Anita seemed a fully realized character, but that's probably due to Karen Olivo's star-making performance.

Favorite moments? The usual crowd-pleasers: Tonight Quintet, America, Tonight, Maria, A Boy Like That/I have a Love. But the rest of the time, I found myself a bit bored. The first act seemed to drag on. I never could wrap my head around the love story (obviously not a fan of Romeo and Juliet) and was always more drawn to the racism, gang mentality and social issues. But in this revival, I couldn't feel the anger, the urgency, the tension nor the culture clash. Even Officer Krupke lost its snarkiness. Don't get me wrong, the show has a lot going for it. The singing was impeccable, the dancing flawless. Spanish translations in the score and book: makes sense. Somewhere was a disappointment. Even worse, the ending was different and lost its power. Maybe I was a victim of Mermaid-itis yet again (hyping it all up in my head like I did The Little Mermaid and winding up disappointed).

I'm sure many people will disagree (all my viewing companions liked the show---wait for Pinky's review). Please feel free to comment. Seriously. I'd love to hear what you guys think.

WSS America

For those who missed it, here's Karen Olivo and the cast of West Side Story performing America on Dancing with the Stars. Show them how it's done girls!

DVR Alert: WSS Cast on Dancing With The Stars

Karen Olivo (Anita) and the cast of the current revival of West Side Story will perform "America" on Dancing With The Stars tonight. The program airs on ABC at 9 pm ET/ 8pm CT.

On a side note, I love the photo (from LaTimes.com) above! Just look at those lines!

Something's Coming

West Side Story had its out-of-town opening night at Washington D.C.'s National Theatre last night. Click here for more of Broadway World's coverage. Argentina's Josefina Scaglione is Maria to Matt Cavanaugh's Tony. Nice to see Karen Olivo and Curtis Holbrook in the cast.
The show moves to Broadway's Palace Theatre for previews 23 February. It opens 19 March.

Are you ready to rumble?

Tickets for the 2009 revival of West Side Story go on sale today. The show is scheduled to begin previews on 23 February at the Palace Theatre, with opening night on the 19th of March. It will have an out of town engagement at the National Theatre in Washington D.C. (where the original production premiered in 1957) from 15 December 2008 to 17 January 2009.

Directed by Arthur Laurents, they will retain Jerome Robbins' original choreography. According to this blog, Mr. Laurents "intends to give the show more verisimilitude, including making the kids more realistically bloodthirsty, and the central lovers Maria and Tony more sexually driven. He also plans to weave Spanish throughout more of the dialog and lyrics."

The cast hasn't been announced yet, although Argentina's La Nacion newspaper reported that Josefina Scaglione will portray Maria.