7 stories behind the scenes from Broadway's original West Side Story
Seth Rudetsky7 Behind the scenes stories from Broadway’s original West Side StoryThis week in the life of Seth Rudetsky, Chita Rivera, Tony Mordente and Harvey Evans, he shares memories of breaking the stage, Jerome Robbins, who was before London’s production, why “cool” was the most difficult number ever, and more.
This week I have a brand new episode of my podcast about high school (Seth Rudetsky is back to school). I think every star I questioned was a good high school student … even Jason Alexander, who claimed to be terrible in math, admitted he got a B+! What? It would be considered an exceptionally high degree on a Seth Rudetsky report card. Eventually, I met a student who did just as bad as in high school.
Yes, both Bebe neuwirth And I was not Model students. When I did not complete a command that was due, I would babble excuses for why I did not. Bebe just owned it. She remembers that one day she was in class and watched her teacher walk around while collecting everyone’s research article. When he got to her desk, she had nothing to give him. She simply looked at him and said, “Forfeit.” I’m obsessed with that answer! Not “OMG! I completely forgot that it was due today” … simply “Foreit.” Shooting was never offered as an option! Actually, Bebe focused her high school years on ballet and theater, and that was it. End of the story; It paid! (Two Tony Awards). Listen to the Whole podcast here.
Every Saturday up Stars in the housewe have Chita rivera And her incredible Broadway friends. Last Saturday we discussed West Side Story with two original members of the cast: Harvey Evans and Tony mordento. In the 50’s Harvey did New girl in the city And when it was outside the city, the producer, Hal Prince, told him there was another show he was working on and Harvey was ready for it. The show has been called Course of a course (which has become West Side Story). Hal told Harvey he couldn’t leave any of his shows until it opened to do another show, but Harvey was invited to the ‘Gypsy by walking’ (that’s when a Broadway performance offered to other Broadway people before the first preview that afternoon). Harvey loved it and begged to be in it. He soon became the first substitute in the cast as Gee-Tar.
Tony Mordente played A-RAB on Broadway, but was then interpreted as action in the film. He wanted to play his original role in the film and was very disappointed to be action and I asked why they switched his role. He said he never asked, because sometimes you ask and don’t like the answer. Either way, he appeared a lot in the film. Look!
He and Harvey remember that Eddie role (the original action) in real life was super tight, such as action. But when the whole cast went to London to do the show, they had to get innocent. Eddie’s response to a needle? He was only one in the cast that fainted!
Chita, the original Anita, remembers very clearly that the Sharks and Jets were not allowed to fraternize. Well, she’s not just a ray (Tony Mordente), they liquidated a daughter (Lisa Mordente)! Chita remembers that Tony saw in rehearsal and felt that he had literally flown. He was constantly in the air. I have found This cut of him in Carnegie Hall And that’s true! You can see him in the air a lot.
Harvey (danced in tons of Broadway shows as well as on The Judy Garland Show and opposite Gwen Verdon to The Ed Sullivan Show) said that “cool” was the hardest dance he has ever done. I asked him why and he told you to have a great balance to make the double knee turns and Keep a solid split and Tony added that the intensity of the dance made it so difficult. You had to keep crazy energy constantly. Look for yourself. Here is the original cast on the Ed Sullivan show what ‘cool’ does (you can see Tony, what a storm dance in a vest).
I asked about the cast of the cast, Martin Charnin, who played Big Deal and later the lyricist/director of Annie. Harvey remembered one night when Martin started laughing during “Gee, officer Krupke.” The next night, a few other jets started laughing. Well, they were told to stop laughing through all the forces it is, but more and more jets kept laughing every night. They couldn’t stop. Finally, one night, they were about to start laughing and suddenly they saw ‘Big Daddy’ in the wings. ‘Big Daddy’ was what the cast called Jerome Robbins, and Harvey said he stopped him there all the laughter in his tracks. And from some of the other stories I heard, it wasn’t the only laugh he stopped! (Ps all three talked about how much they loved Jerome Robbins and how fantastic he was to work with).
Chita, Tony and Harvey also talked about how much they love Larry Kert, who played Tony, and how funny he was. Tony (Mordente) recalled that he was on an eighth lane street corner when Larry suddenly got a taxi into the taxi, climbed in and said to the driver, “Across the street and walking on it!” The driver was furious over the 25 Cent Taxi ride!
Lisa has a production of Anything is going With Larry. She remembers that she had to be put upside down to an open window for a quick scene with him. To hang upside down, she found herself and she was glad there were only a few rules. Well, there were many evenings when she was set to the window, and Larry, knowing that she wanted the scene to be as fast as possible, there would be there, stand still, and then Slo-Oo-Wly said his first line, so she was forced to hang there until he was done. Hilarious! And vomiting producing.
Harvey, who was very close to Larry, remembered that he had a wonderful time to tour Larry in the country The cage aux folles. Look how wonderful they are together!
To shut down: Here’s a number I wrote for the Actors Fund fundraising Nothing like a lady It contains Chita in her original Anita costume. The two soloists are Natascia Diaz and Laurie Gamache.
And don’t forget to watch Stars in the houseevery day at 14:00 and 20:00 and watch all the previous episodes at Youtube.com/starsinthouse. And sign in!