- 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.
sekenbanashi 