NEW Laurents interview reveals WSS Revival changes- Page 2

[Jennifer Lynn]

Posted: 3/28/08 at 12:14pm

I'm all in favor of bringing out the passion between Tony and Maria and the viciousness of the gangs. After all, isn't that a criticism many make towards the movie version (much as I love it)--that the gang members seem too sanitized and that there isn't enough chemistry between the leads?

As I was thinking while watching a totally blah high-school production--this show, like its source, demands PASSION. Passionate love. Passionate hate. Passionate anger. And if that's not there, then we're not going to be invested in it.

(I try not to miss a production, even a high-school one. And maybe I'm expecting too much of a high-school show, but I've always thought that WSS was one show high-school students could do well--I mean, who could convey teenage emotions like TEENAGERS? But this was their Tony's performance: (utter monotone) "I'm searching for something better. I'm madly in love. I'm desperate to stop a fight. I'm enraged that my best friend's been killed. I'm horrified that I killed my girlfriend's brother. I'm devastated at hearing of her death. I'm dying of a gunshot wound.")

And as for the movie version changes--well, I do think that "Cool" has a power in the movie that the stage version has never really conveyed. But remember also that the film and the stage are different animals. With the stage version, we had an intermission to process the devastating Act I ending--then when Act II began with "I Feel Pretty", we could appreciate the irony of it, and later, when "Officer Krupke" came charging in (and if done well, this song can convey anger and irony as well, and maybe a little hysterical bravado on the Jets' part), we can appreciate a little comic relief. In the film, there was no intermission--we just needed that unbroken dramatic line leading up to the ending.

But you're right--I may like the original version of "America", but I ADORE the movie's version.

[jrb]

Posted: 3/28/08 at 12:31pm

"They're killers, each and every one of them. They're vicious and they have to be played that way."

Please feel free to correct me as I may be miguided here but wasn't the whole concept holding the piece together that it took the death of Ricardo and Tony to bring these gangs - composed of what amount to children - back to reality? It's Romeo and Julliet. We all know this.
We see them as misguided kids slowly losing their innocence until the deaths of Ricardo and then ultimately Tony bring things to a peak.

If they are portrayed as murderous, violent people from the onset, won't some of the catharsis be lost? Wouldn't they just respond to Maria's sorrow by continuing the killings? Won't the whole point be lost? I just think the idea is that they aren't inherently evil, they've just become wrapped up in meaningless violence. The whole kid next door thing might be dated, but it allowed the audience to relate to the humanity in these kids - so that they could see themselves reflected in the piece.

Again...please feel free to correct.

[Jennifer Lynn]

Posted: 3/28/08 at 12:44pm

I think what Laurents may have been getting at was "they're tough, knocked-around, street gang members, not the sanitized versions that some productions have them as." Which makes some sense. To my mind, it's especially important to have Tony give off a sense of having once been a tough gang member--without that, his murder of Bernardo seems out-of-place.