From Left to Right: Joey Haro Jacket, American Apparel Vest, American Apparel Tank, Levis Jeans, Diesel Belt, Club Monaco Tanairi Vasquez Jacket- Members Only Blouse- H&M Jeans- Levis Manuel Santos Jacket, Members Only Sweater, Triple Five Soul Jeans, Levis Amy Ryerson Jacket, H&M Sweater, H&M Jeans, Levis Earrings, Aldo a suspension of belief so high that audiences choose to applaud a dancing lion and a demon barber, instead of scratching their heads and running out of the theater to journey back to the “real world.”
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The words ‘authenticity’ and ‘musical theater’ have never been good friends. In fact, musical theater requires
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Safe; there’s a word that is a much better friend of musical theater in the 21st century, a period already notorious for its reliance on known commodities delivered straight from the big screen. The most anticipated production on Broadway this spring happens to have already been an Oscar-winning movie. But if director Arthur Laurents has anything to do with it, the new revival of West Side Story, which openied this March, will bring an authenticity to the material (which he helped write) that will make you forget all about the legendary screen adaptation. The last thing it will be is safe.
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For starters, ninety-one-year-old Laurents knows this isn’t 1957. This is New York City in 2009, a time where the world is seen in multi-cultural high definition. It may be an economic crisis, but it’s no time to downsize, so the director is counting on a 32-piece orchestra (unheard of these days) and a batch of new, young talent to breathe life into this classic musical. By now, you know the story: take Romeo and Juliet and place the weapons firmly in a jazz hand. Call the Montagues and the Capulets the Sharks and the Jets, rival gangs vying for street superiority through a series of kicks; then add finger Sam Rogers Jacket, H&M Polo, American Apparel Trousers, H&M
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In the film, thirty year olds played teenagers, and caked on makeup provided the needed ethnicity. Those casting choices are absent from this revival. One look through the following pictures proves Laurents cast the production young—some members have been plucked straight out of college— and the put-upon accents of the film’s Natalie Woods will be replaced with authentic Spanish. In fact, Lin-Manuel Miranda, straight off of his Tony-Award winning In the Heights, has been brought on board to translate portions of Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics into the native language of the characters.
Starting to sound a bit more authentic? That’s the goal. And that’s just what Movmnt had in mind when we took the cast out of the theater and onto the streets of Manhattan’s West Side Highway to re-imagine some of West Side Story’s famous images.
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