• Ivo van Hove’s (!) West Side Story

7/13/18 (Fri)

Something’s coming indeed. Hot on the heels of the unlikely news that Hollywood giant Steven Spielberg is taking on his first musical with a film remake of West Side Story, it’s been announced that the eclectic stage director Ivo van Hove is taking on his first Broadway musical with a stage production of that very same West Side Story. Odd that these are coming essentially at the same time, especially as the approaches of the populist filmmaker and decidedly non-populist stage director are likely to be vastly different.

Most notably, a press release on July 12 by veteran producer Scott Rudin says that the new stage version will not feature the classic finger-snapping dances by Jerome Robbins, who (in Robbins’ own modest words) “conceived, directed and choreographed” the original production, but use new work by contemporary dance choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. Scenery and lighting design will be handled by van Hove’s regular collaborator and life partner Jan Versweyveld, making for an all-Belgian creative team. Based on the director’s previous shows, we can expect a bare stage and lots of bare feet.

The press release includes enthusiastic endorsements from lyricist Stephen Sondheim, the estate of book writer Arthur Laurents, and composer Leonard Bernstein’s daughter Jamie – but unsurprisingly no word from the Robbins side. Worryingly, Bernstein says that “the story line involving the mistreatment of Puerto Rican immigrants makes West Side Story more timely now than ever”, quoting the lyric, “Nobody knows in America/Puerto Rico’s IN America!”.

That’s not an encouraging comment for two reasons. First, it’s a terrible lyric. Sondheim adeptly played against the music in some cases to suggest a Puerto Rican accent (“I’d like to go back to San Juan / I know a boat you can get on”), but it’s hard to believe that a Spanish speaker would say Puerto Ri-CO. That sounds like one of those lazy Lorenz Hart-type lyrics that Sondheim is always going on about.

Worse, it suggests that the focus in the show will shift from intolerance on all sides – think Montagues and Capulets – to the intolerance of the Big Bad White majority against the Poor Innocent Hispanic minority. Laurents’ script was carefully balanced to show an equal amount of senseless hatred on both parts, achieving, as in Shakespeare, a more universal message. The show gives each side its moment of societal angst – the Sharks with “America”, the Jets with “Gee, Officer Krupke” – but the real theme is much broader. A political message would be a diminishment, relegating this timeless show to a time capsule.

Nevertheless, it’s always good to revisit the classics, and if the choice of van Hove suggests less a revival than a reconstruction (or deconstruction), maybe that’s just what this old warhorse needs. The simultaneous appearance of two distinct visions of this iconic piece will be quite a show in itself. As I said with Spielberg, I’m ready for anything.