Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
#1Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 3:13am
My boyfriend tells me that his friend lost the role of Tony in the upcoming revival of West Side Story to Matt Cavenaugh.
Does anyone know if there is any truth to this statement?
"Somethin's comin', I don't know what it is but it is gonna be great!"
Ed_Mottershead
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/20/05
#2re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 5:49amIsn't Matt Cavanaugh a little old to be playing Tony?
BroadwayEd
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#3re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 9:31amTooDarnHot is the only one who really knows what's going to happen and of course, he's sworn to secrecy.
millie_dillmount
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/22/04
#4re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 9:34am
Is your boyfriend TooDarnHot?
Kidding.
Can't people just wait for an official announcement?
"We like to snark around here. Sometimes we actually talk about theater...but we try not to let that get in our way." - dramamama611
ShbrtAlley44
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/1/03
#5re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 9:58amThe way they're casting this, Matt should be playing Doc.
erinrebecca
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/29/04
#6re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 10:23amI can't comment on Matt Cavenaugh but unless your boyfriend's friend is currently in a Broadway show, he's mistaken.
#7re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 11:16amLaurents has been insisting he's casting this revival YOUNG. Matt Cavenaugh doesn't fit that description.
#8re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 11:20am
My boyfriend's friend is the standby or understudy for Melchior in Spring Awakening.
My boyfriend just did Singin' in the Rain at Peach State and his Cathy, her name is Allison, her boyfriend is the standby or understudy for Melchior and he is 22 and says he lost the role to Matt.
Just sayin...
"Somethin's comin', I don't know what it is but it is gonna be great!"
Updated On: 7/13/08 at 11:20 AM
#9re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 11:21amMarc Shaiman, help us out, please!
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
#10re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 11:28am
That would make the "boyfriend's friend" either Jesse Swenson, Matt Shingledecker, or Matt Doyle. Although it sounds like we're now talking about the boyfriend's friend's boyfriend. And the story just gets more and more bizarre.....
Updated On: 7/13/08 at 11:28 AM
RentBoy86
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
#11re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 11:41amI hope not, I don't like his voice at all. It worked well for Grey Gardens and for A Catered Affair, but I don't think it fits WSS at all.
#12re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 11:43amThis is of course not the truth. No one believe what he is saying.
"He found something that he wanted, had always wanted and always would want— not to be admired, as he had feared; not to be loved, as he had made himself believe; but to be necessary to people, to be indispensable."
-F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise
#13re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 12:06pmI wouldn't think anyone does actually believe this.
MusicalComedyMan
Broadway Star Joined: 12/29/03
#14re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 12:22pmMaybe Matt is playing Officer Krupkee?
#15re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 12:22pm
I am so excited to learn who will be cast!
Enjoy the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnf6dTiwMLQ
"Everytime you step on that stage it is somebody's first Broadway show and somebody's last Broadway show. Make it count."
#16re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 12:32pmCavenaugh could sing the role without problem, but I don't think anyone would buy that he's in high school.
MusicalComedyMan
Broadway Star Joined: 12/29/03
#17re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 12:33pmAnd he also can't really act at all!
#18re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 12:59pm
Well, hell, why don't we just take turns beating the crap out of him? Tacky b***es.
I think he's very talented and would be perfect for this role.
Perhaps they aren't casting this as young as was thought. Either way, Matt isn't elderly for goodness sake.
And the truth is that most young roles need to be played by older actors because the material is often beyond what a younger actor is capable of sustaining. Not always, but often.
#19re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 1:22pmHe's a good actor and fine singer, but he certainly doesn't remotely look like a high school student.
#20re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 2:16pm
For the record, Larry Kert was 27 when he opened WSS in 1957...Matt Cavenaugh is currently 30, so not that much of an age difference.
I, for one, hope this is true. I think Matt Cavenaugh is an extremely talented actor and will be a fabulous Tony. If he were free to do Damn Yankees, I would love to have seen him as Joe Hardy. If he is cast in WSS, I am glad he will finally be in a hit show after three financial flop musicals in a row (Urban Cowboy, Grey Gardens, A Catered Affair).
#21re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 2:21pm
Have you guys actually read or watched West Side Story?
Tony and Riff are older members of the gang. They both started the Jets.
Tony is out of the gang at the beginning of the play. He's left it all behind him to take a job at Doc's. Riff is still in the gang, and is its leader alone now. He asks Tony to come to the dance "for old time's sake."
Read the play first before you start casting it. There is NO reference to Tony still being in high school.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#22re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 3:06pm
Besty, I think people's complaints come from the fact that Arthur Laurents seems to have made a big deal about casting young actors (in their teens or early 20s, I believe) in this production, and that is one of the factors that would make this revival "ground-breaking" and whatnot. Well, casting Cavenaugh contradicts that idea in a way.
Plus, didn't Laurents say he wanted to truly get the gritty aspect of the show?
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#23re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 3:10pm
Maybe Matt will be gritty. If he's indeed Tony I mean. 
erinrebecca
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/29/04
#24re: Matt Cavenaugh and West Side Story
Posted: 7/13/08 at 3:29pm
They made the decision a while ago that they were not going to be able to cast this production as young as they had originally intended. Whether or not Laurents 'made a big deal' about casting it young, it isn't going to happen because they haven't found the talent they wanted to be able to cast the entire show in that way.
mywonderwa11, your source is a reliable one. People should not be surprised when the official announcement is made.
adamgreer, it is not a bizarre story at all. One of those individuals you listed was, indeed, in the final three, up until Thursday.
Updated On: 7/13/08 at 03:29 PM
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