The innovative and controversial new production of West Side Story from Ivo van Hove opened on Broadway to fractured reviews. This production had people up in arms throughout its rehearsal process regarding things as wide-ranging as injured dancers, sexual harassment and street protests, and the cutting of “I Feel Pretty” and the choreography of Jerome Robbins; and it continues to divide Broadway post-opening. The larger-than life video projections seem to be at the center of both the show’s greatest praise and greatest critique, with a consensus that it’s hard to figure out where to look – a huge failing for some and source of extreme excitement for others. This is a fresh 21st century perspective on the classic musical, and like so much in our world right now, it seems there is no middle ground — you’ll either love it or hate it. What side do you land on?
NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW OF WEST SIDE STORY
No one should be surprised to hear that Ivo van Hove has blown up “West Side Story.” This industrious, experimental director is celebrated, after all, for taking an artistic detonator to sacred classics — by authors like Shakespeare, Molière, Miller and O’Neill — and letting the pieces fly. But the blowing up…
DEADLINE REVIEW OF WEST SIDE STORY
One of the breathtaking moments in director Ivo van Hove’s bold, gorgeous multi-media re-imagining of the great New York musical West Side Story comes when those famously brawling street gangs restrain the tale’s star-crossed lovers from kissing. Each side pulls its own, tug-of-war-style, one holding back…
VARIETY REVIEW OF WEST SIDE STORY
Whittled down to one hour and forty-five minutes, “West Side Story” – with book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and choreography by Jerome Robbins — has grown exceedingly dark and mislaid some of its moving parts in the new Broadway revival from edgy Belgian director…
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER REVIEW OF WEST SIDE STORY
It says something about the supreme power of flesh-and-blood people portraying raw human feeling on stage, without the filter of another medium, that the most emotionally devastating and visually stunning moment in the radical new Broadway revival of West Side Story occurs when its extensive video elements…
NEW YORK POST REVIEW OF WEST SIDE STORY
It feels pretty . . . different. A galvanizing new revival of “West Side Story” opened Thursday night on Broadway, minus some familiar sights and sounds. Jerome Robbins’ legendary choreography has been Jet-tisoned along with the “Somewhere” ballet, and Maria’s chirpy “I Feel Pretty” was given the ax. There’s…
Broadway Musical Blog 