As I predicted, Scott Rudin’s “West Side Story” revival will not reopen on Broadway.
I’m told this is because Disney does not want this reviled revival to interfere with their big Oscar buzzed Steven Spielberg movie coming in December.
It wasn’t hard for Spielberg to talk financial backers David Geffen and Barry Diller into letting this go. They certainly don’t want to be in business with Rudin, who is a pariah right now. Plus, the show was terrible.
This “WSS” was so bad that that it opened but was omitted from the 2020 Tony Awards. The production was then supposed to be eligible for the next Tony’s. But now it will disappear between the cracks in the sidewalks of Broadway.
This production was really terrible in so many ways. Jerome Robbins’ famed choreography was chucked in favor of new dance numbers that were considered ‘edgier’ but in fact looked like Mike Myers doing “Sprockets” on “SNL.” And there were no sets, just big video screens, the trademark of director Ivo von Hove.
So goodbye to this “WSS” and welcome to the Spielberg movie.
“It is with great regret that we are announcing today that the 2020 Broadway revival of West Side Story will not reopen. This difficult and painful decision comes after we have explored every possible path to a successful run, and unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, reopening is not a practical proposition. We thank all the brilliant, creative artists who brought West Side Story to life at the Broadway Theatre, even for so brief a time, especially the extraordinary acting company, 33 of whom made their Broadway debuts in this production.”
