FEBRUARY 28, 2020
Culture
48
Illustration by BRITT SPENCER
major departure from the show’s classic staging, van Hove’s take on hopes his vision will show the musical in “all its cruelty and devastation, but also all the beauty and all the hope.” The Tony-award winning Belgian director of live in. “There’s this fear of authority, be it police, be it the social system.” In a on the cultural differences between the characters and the violent world they the original production, keeping the stage bare and the story “raw.” He focuses Story The Cruciblewest side storyalso has all-new choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker; in fact, director of the latest Broadway revival, opening February 20. Van Hove (2016) and is “an american masterpiece,” says ivo van hove, A View from the Bridge (2015) has scaled back from West Side
of the musical’s four Broadway productions, only van Hove’s does not feature Jerome Robbins’ signature dance moves. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the script. “I kept the script the way it was, because I love the harshness of it.”Ivo van Hove These young people are on their own. They’re almost like orphans thrown know is that they want to establish into the world. The only thing that they Wthe 21st century?hy remake West Side Story for
7KHFODVKRIFXOWXUHVLVVWLOOJRLQJRQE\ɿJKWLQJ-XVWIRUWHUULWRU\DQGWKLVOLWWOHSLHFHRIWHUULWRU\JLYHVWKHPDQLGHQWLW\ţ:HDUHWKH-HWV:HDUHWKH6KDUNVŤ7KDWŠVVRPHWKLQJWKDW,ɿQGresonates a lot.their own identity, and they do this is politically relevant today?How do you think West Side Story^
7KHH[FOXGLQJRIWKHPXVLVKDSSHQLQJThat’s what you see in this musical; it RQDKLJKSROLWLFDOOHYHODQGQRWRQO\LQ$PHULFD,WŠVYHU\UHOHYDQWDQGit’s a scary thing because that’s the VWXIIWKDWFUHDWHVZDUVDQGYLROHQFHGHDOVZLWKYLROHQFH2QFH\RXWUHDWYLROHQFHDVDQRUPDOWKLQJLWOHDGVWRcatastrophe.
PDNHDEHDXWLIXOSLHFHRIZRUN,ŠPSpielberg version of your version of WORRNLQJIRUZDUGWRVHHLQJWKHPRYLHcoming out in December 2020?It came up during production. [Tony .XVKQHUDQG6WHYHQ6SLHOEHUJ@ZLOOWere you aware of the Steven hat do you hope people take fromWest Side StoryWest Side Story?^
Some people come to see our take on it, other people come because WKH\ORYHFRPHVIRUGLIIHUHQWUHDVRQVDQG,respect that. West Side Story—H. Alan Scott(YHU\ERG\PARTING SHOT
violence as a normal thing, it leads to “Once you treat catastrophe.”