Day 5 began with another trip to the New York Library of the Performing Arts, where we viewed the original cast of ” Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”. I saw them twice in 2005, and it was a joy to witness it again, preserved beautifully, forever.
After our few hours there in the viewing room, we headed out, and had a delicious quick lunch at Cafe Duke. Then we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our evening’s activities, “West Side Story” and the “After Party”, a legendary New York open mic.
“West Side” was quite wonderful. To see the legendary musical live for the first time was a thrill, and to witness the dancing, and Jerome Robbins’ original choreography was undeniably inspiring. The cast was uniformly excellent, and the set, and lighting beautifully established the mood, and setting.
My only complaint about “West Side” would be the changes made to the show in this revival- changing some of the Sharks’ lyrics, and dialogue to Spanish. I understand the impulse behind doing this, and it sounds like a good idea on paper- but it just ends up being distracting, and sort of dull. It robs a few numbers of their tightness, and mostly just seems forced. I understand that Arthur Laurents’ book doesn’t represent how the Puerto Rican’s would actually talk in 1957, but that’s ok. This is a musical, and people are always willing to suspend their disbelief. You have dancing gang members for God’s sake! Altering a classic show at this time is actually more irritating than any corniness in the script. However, it did not amount to much of a complaint, because the show, and cast was altogether terrific.
After the show, we went to The Laurie Beechman Theatre- located under the West Bank Cafe, where there is a weekly open mic, and show called “The After Party”. Hosted by the hilarious Brandon Cutrell, it was a great evening, with many terrific surprise guests from the Broadway community. After a few hours, my girlfriend and I sang, and had an absolute blast. The audience seemed to really enjoy it, and so did we. It was a real thrill to get up in this theater with brilliant acoustics, and sing in front of so many people in the NY theater community. It is a great opportunity, and I would advise any aspiring New York performers to get over to 42nd and 9th, and go do it!
After that, it was past 3, and we had a quick bite and headed back to the hotel. On to the next day!
