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Ramblings about West Side Story
Yesterday was musical day for me. I watched a performance of La Belle Helene by Jacques Offenbach, which stumbled slightly in the first act (note to the performers: yes, it's intentional camp, but you can't do good camp by mere overacting), but then turned out fine. The singing was, too. It's my favourite operetta by Offenbach, and I wonder whether the cinematic release of Troy will bring it back into the theatres.*g*
I also watched some of my Westside Story DVD. Glorious. I'm not sure whether I agree with whoever said in the documentary on the DVD that this is the best score ever for a musical, but it's certainly my favourite. And then you've got Stephen Sondheim's lyrics - Arthur Laurents, who wrote the book, called the collaboration of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim for West Side Story an "extremely happy marriage", and I concur. Two geniuses together - how often do you get that? Mr. Laurents isn't half bad, either, and cracked me up with the following: when asked what he was proudest about, he said the one plot point where he improved on good old Shakespeare, namely, the last tragic twist. The message to Romeo about Juliet doesn't get delivered, resulting in him learning about her supposed death instead, because the plague breaks out in Mantua. A coincidence which has nothing whatsoever to do with the rest of the play. Whereas Maria's message to Tony does not get delivered, and he learns about her supposed death, because the Jets taunt and attempt to rape Anita. Which is the result of the pent-up hate, aggression and bigotry between the gangs, a central element of the play. Quoth Laurents, regretfully: "But nobody in America noticed that. In England they did. I suppose they know their Shakespeare."
Speaking of the Bard and Romeo and Juliet, of course you can appreciate West Side Story without knowing the former. (My father certainly did as a teenager, developing a big crush on Natalie Wood in the process, and didn't believe me at first when I said that the two plays are connected way more intimately than just through the basic "forbidden love between lovers of feuding communities" theme.) But it's fascinating to compare and contrast what Laurents, Sondheim, Bernstein & Robbins in this still most successful of modern Shakespeare adaptions. Take Anita, who is the equivalent of the Nurse in R&J, but is the stronger character. (The Nurse is fun and loving but crumbles when Old Capulet puts his foot down, resulting in her failing Juliet like everyone else does.) Whereas Doc, who is Friar Laurence, is far weaker and less present than the Friar is, but then he's an adult and all the adults in West Side Story are useless. (The script, which is included in the special edition DVD, even calls them that.) Lt. Schrank might show up in the end but has no authority as is given to the Prince; all the authority is with Maria.
Stephen Sondheim tells about Tonight, the equivalent of the balcony scene, on the documentary, and it's a great glimpse on how the collaboration went. Seems that Bernstein at first wrote "Once Hand, One Heart" for this scene. Then Sondheim said the music was too pristine. Bernstein asked, doubtfully: "Well, aren't they?" Quoth Sondheim: "No, Lenny, they're kids. They're passionate, they need to be sexual here." Which resulted in Bernstein taking the Tony and Maria section from the Quintet he had already written and developing Tonight, probably his most famous love duet, from there.
(Incidentally, especially considering that Romeo and Juliet are sexual Sondheim was dead-on here.)
The film version is another happy marriage (in the end result, though the production was strained) between Jerome Robbins, who had choreographed and conceptualised the original show, and Robert Wise. You can see Wise's contribution as a director in scenes like the opening prologue, with it's birds-eye view of New York's various sections ("I didn't want to do just another version of the Manhattan skyline," he says in the documentary), and then the dive into the playground, the cut to Riff and the Jets snapping their fingers. Which is where Robbins comes in. I'm no expert, but I can't think of a musical predating this one where the way of dancing, the body language, is so much a part of the characters. The finger snapping, the way the boys walk which seamlessly moves between dance and aggressive strut, tells you all about them, together with that fabulous, fabulous music.
All the voices for the songs are dubbed by professional singers, as was the custom then, which some of the actors had and still have issues with. Rita Moreno (Anita) says she thinks that the singer for Anita is not nearly aggressing and growling enough in "A Boy Like That"; Russ Tamblyn (Riff) thinks he did alright, and apparently the late Natalie Wood studied hard and was very disappointed they didn't use her voice. The documentary offers some excerpts of the scenes recorded with the actors' voices, and intercuts them with the released version where the voices are dubbed, which is fascinating. Judging by this, I'd say that everyone sung about as well as the BTVS cast did for Once More, With Feeling, i.e. it would have made a fine film this way, too, but no, they did not have an operatic level.
Speaking of the surviving interviewed actors, Richard Beymer (Tony) frankly confesses he thought his part was the most boring of the entire play/film, because until Riff dies, all it demands is a pretty much one-note "oh bliss, I'm in love" attitude. Cheer up, Beymer. You did get to sink your teeth into disturbed incestuous fatherhood in Twin Peaks years later, and played it very well. (He was good as Li Nalas in the opening season 2 three-parter of DS9, too.) This reminded me of Laurence Olivier, one of the most famous Romeos in his youth, complaining that it wasn't much fun playing a character "who's main motivation is an erection". He was exaggerating, but between the young lovers, Julia and Maria are clearly the juicier parts in terms of character development. And of course everyone loves Mercutio and Riff, the Nurse and Anita, and Bernardo (though not so much Tybalt).
Sidenote: Was Twin Peaks a West Side Story reunion or what? After all, it also had Russ Tamblyn as Dr. Laurence Jacoby. (Now I'm wondering why Lynch didn't let Leland and Jacoby perform a duet in Laura's memory.)
Rita Moreno still looks stunning. I want to look like she does when I'm her age. Heck, even when I'm still younger. Anita was both a blessing and a curse for her. The blessing is obvious (Oscar!), but then you get nothing but "Latin firebrands" forever after. Like Selma Hayceck, only Selma H. managed to get Frida done and thus might have managed to escape that label.
The film's changes in comparison to the stage play all work well. Sondheim says he was so happy about the switch between "Officer Kruppke" and "Cool" and that he had pushed for it early on. ("Kids on the run after witnessing two murders aren't going to sing "Officer Kruppke". They're going to sing "Cool". And then Jerome Robbins called me and said, okay, Stephen, for the film you're finally going to get your wish.") The other major switch, taking "America" from a small-scale number between Anita and two of her friends in the shop to a big production number involving all the Shark boys and girls, works so well not just in terms of cinema but content that I've seen stage performances who used this version instead of the original. Though not the three tenors when they sang it in Los Angeles, which does not surprise me, considering it goes like this:
Anita
Life can be bright in America
Bernardo
If you can fight in America
Anita
Life is all right in America
Bernardo
If you are white in America
Anita
Here you are free and you have pride
Bernardo
Long as you stay on your own side.
Anita
Free to be anything you choose
Bernardo
Free to wait tables and shine shoes….
That's another thing about West Side Story. Today, there are a lot of musicals tackling social problems, but back then, all this gang warfare, juvenile delinquency, racism, etc. as a quintessential plot point must have been revolutionary. As must have been Sondheim's sharp tongue:
Dear kindly social worker
They tell me get a job
Like be a soda-jerker
Which means like be a slob.
It's not that I'm anti-social,
I'm only anti-work.
Gloryosky, that's why I'm a jerk!
Ah, West Side Story. May you forever reign in youthful splendour, whether on stage or DVD.
I also watched some of my Westside Story DVD. Glorious. I'm not sure whether I agree with whoever said in the documentary on the DVD that this is the best score ever for a musical, but it's certainly my favourite. And then you've got Stephen Sondheim's lyrics - Arthur Laurents, who wrote the book, called the collaboration of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim for West Side Story an "extremely happy marriage", and I concur. Two geniuses together - how often do you get that? Mr. Laurents isn't half bad, either, and cracked me up with the following: when asked what he was proudest about, he said the one plot point where he improved on good old Shakespeare, namely, the last tragic twist. The message to Romeo about Juliet doesn't get delivered, resulting in him learning about her supposed death instead, because the plague breaks out in Mantua. A coincidence which has nothing whatsoever to do with the rest of the play. Whereas Maria's message to Tony does not get delivered, and he learns about her supposed death, because the Jets taunt and attempt to rape Anita. Which is the result of the pent-up hate, aggression and bigotry between the gangs, a central element of the play. Quoth Laurents, regretfully: "But nobody in America noticed that. In England they did. I suppose they know their Shakespeare."
Speaking of the Bard and Romeo and Juliet, of course you can appreciate West Side Story without knowing the former. (My father certainly did as a teenager, developing a big crush on Natalie Wood in the process, and didn't believe me at first when I said that the two plays are connected way more intimately than just through the basic "forbidden love between lovers of feuding communities" theme.) But it's fascinating to compare and contrast what Laurents, Sondheim, Bernstein & Robbins in this still most successful of modern Shakespeare adaptions. Take Anita, who is the equivalent of the Nurse in R&J, but is the stronger character. (The Nurse is fun and loving but crumbles when Old Capulet puts his foot down, resulting in her failing Juliet like everyone else does.) Whereas Doc, who is Friar Laurence, is far weaker and less present than the Friar is, but then he's an adult and all the adults in West Side Story are useless. (The script, which is included in the special edition DVD, even calls them that.) Lt. Schrank might show up in the end but has no authority as is given to the Prince; all the authority is with Maria.
Stephen Sondheim tells about Tonight, the equivalent of the balcony scene, on the documentary, and it's a great glimpse on how the collaboration went. Seems that Bernstein at first wrote "Once Hand, One Heart" for this scene. Then Sondheim said the music was too pristine. Bernstein asked, doubtfully: "Well, aren't they?" Quoth Sondheim: "No, Lenny, they're kids. They're passionate, they need to be sexual here." Which resulted in Bernstein taking the Tony and Maria section from the Quintet he had already written and developing Tonight, probably his most famous love duet, from there.
(Incidentally, especially considering that Romeo and Juliet are sexual Sondheim was dead-on here.)
The film version is another happy marriage (in the end result, though the production was strained) between Jerome Robbins, who had choreographed and conceptualised the original show, and Robert Wise. You can see Wise's contribution as a director in scenes like the opening prologue, with it's birds-eye view of New York's various sections ("I didn't want to do just another version of the Manhattan skyline," he says in the documentary), and then the dive into the playground, the cut to Riff and the Jets snapping their fingers. Which is where Robbins comes in. I'm no expert, but I can't think of a musical predating this one where the way of dancing, the body language, is so much a part of the characters. The finger snapping, the way the boys walk which seamlessly moves between dance and aggressive strut, tells you all about them, together with that fabulous, fabulous music.
All the voices for the songs are dubbed by professional singers, as was the custom then, which some of the actors had and still have issues with. Rita Moreno (Anita) says she thinks that the singer for Anita is not nearly aggressing and growling enough in "A Boy Like That"; Russ Tamblyn (Riff) thinks he did alright, and apparently the late Natalie Wood studied hard and was very disappointed they didn't use her voice. The documentary offers some excerpts of the scenes recorded with the actors' voices, and intercuts them with the released version where the voices are dubbed, which is fascinating. Judging by this, I'd say that everyone sung about as well as the BTVS cast did for Once More, With Feeling, i.e. it would have made a fine film this way, too, but no, they did not have an operatic level.
Speaking of the surviving interviewed actors, Richard Beymer (Tony) frankly confesses he thought his part was the most boring of the entire play/film, because until Riff dies, all it demands is a pretty much one-note "oh bliss, I'm in love" attitude. Cheer up, Beymer. You did get to sink your teeth into disturbed incestuous fatherhood in Twin Peaks years later, and played it very well. (He was good as Li Nalas in the opening season 2 three-parter of DS9, too.) This reminded me of Laurence Olivier, one of the most famous Romeos in his youth, complaining that it wasn't much fun playing a character "who's main motivation is an erection". He was exaggerating, but between the young lovers, Julia and Maria are clearly the juicier parts in terms of character development. And of course everyone loves Mercutio and Riff, the Nurse and Anita, and Bernardo (though not so much Tybalt).
Sidenote: Was Twin Peaks a West Side Story reunion or what? After all, it also had Russ Tamblyn as Dr. Laurence Jacoby. (Now I'm wondering why Lynch didn't let Leland and Jacoby perform a duet in Laura's memory.)
Rita Moreno still looks stunning. I want to look like she does when I'm her age. Heck, even when I'm still younger. Anita was both a blessing and a curse for her. The blessing is obvious (Oscar!), but then you get nothing but "Latin firebrands" forever after. Like Selma Hayceck, only Selma H. managed to get Frida done and thus might have managed to escape that label.
The film's changes in comparison to the stage play all work well. Sondheim says he was so happy about the switch between "Officer Kruppke" and "Cool" and that he had pushed for it early on. ("Kids on the run after witnessing two murders aren't going to sing "Officer Kruppke". They're going to sing "Cool". And then Jerome Robbins called me and said, okay, Stephen, for the film you're finally going to get your wish.") The other major switch, taking "America" from a small-scale number between Anita and two of her friends in the shop to a big production number involving all the Shark boys and girls, works so well not just in terms of cinema but content that I've seen stage performances who used this version instead of the original. Though not the three tenors when they sang it in Los Angeles, which does not surprise me, considering it goes like this:
Anita
Life can be bright in America
Bernardo
If you can fight in America
Anita
Life is all right in America
Bernardo
If you are white in America
Anita
Here you are free and you have pride
Bernardo
Long as you stay on your own side.
Anita
Free to be anything you choose
Bernardo
Free to wait tables and shine shoes….
That's another thing about West Side Story. Today, there are a lot of musicals tackling social problems, but back then, all this gang warfare, juvenile delinquency, racism, etc. as a quintessential plot point must have been revolutionary. As must have been Sondheim's sharp tongue:
Dear kindly social worker
They tell me get a job
Like be a soda-jerker
Which means like be a slob.
It's not that I'm anti-social,
I'm only anti-work.
Gloryosky, that's why I'm a jerk!
Ah, West Side Story. May you forever reign in youthful splendour, whether on stage or DVD.