Steven Spielberg's WEST SIDE STORY - News & Discussion Thread- Page 22

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 5/31/21 at 8:52pm

Rita couldn’t sing it in 1961, no way in hell can she sing it today in her 80s. Betty Wand dubbed her in the original 1961 because the song is pitchy and wasn’t at all in her vocal range.

[Globefan]

Posted: 5/31/21 at 8:56pm

A lot of the Shark Girls besides Anita and Rosalia have been renamed. Consuelo was changed to Luz 

[A Director]

Posted: 6/1/21 at 2:24am

Musical Master said: "So I was looking at IMDB for a while and looking at the cast list, apparently there is a cast credit for "Detective in Morgue". So are we assuming that there's a new scene in a City Morgue where Anita or Maria or both identify Bernardo's dead body? If that's going to be in the final cut, then wow that's a dark and sad addition."

West Side Story is a dark and sad musical.  It's not a Judy Garland musical!

 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 6/1/21 at 7:59am

A Director said: "Musical Master said: "So I was looking at IMDB for a while and looking at the cast list, apparently there is a cast credit for "Detective in Morgue". So are we assuming that there's a new scene in a City Morgue where Anita or Maria or both identify Bernardo's dead body? If that's going to be in the final cut, then wow that's a dark and sad addition."

West Side Story is a dark and sad musical. It's not a Judy Garland musical!”

Apparently you never saw 1954’s A STAR IS BORN.  

[Musical Master]

Posted: 6/1/21 at 2:12pm

That's my favorite version of A Star Is Born and right behind it is the new 2018 version. After the new morgue scene, it could give Maria's outburst in front of Tony more impact and we know that this leads to the "Somewhere Ballet".

Honestly out of all the song and dance numbers in the film, that's the one I'm most excited about. I hope that if the ballet is in there it's going to be stunning; after all with Spielberg's direction and Justin Peck's chorography, it has the makings of a work of cinematic art.

[Globefan]

Posted: 6/1/21 at 3:11pm

Musical Master said: "That's my favorite version of A Star Is Born and right behind it is the new 2018 version. After the new morgue scene,it could give Maria's outburst in front of Tony more impact and we know that this leadsto the "Somewhere Ballet".

Honestly out of all the song and dance numbers in the film, that's the one I'm most excited about. I hope that if the ballet is in there it's going to be stunning;after all withSpielberg's direction and Justin Peck's chorography,it has the makings of a work of cinematic art."

I feel that the Somewhere Ballet's inclusion doesn't need an event in the story to justify it. It can just go into it the way it does on stage 

[Musical Master]

Posted: 6/1/21 at 5:24pm

But this is a film though, a director can do so many things with action, character, and song that it doesn't have to be faithful to the stage version to a fault. Have we really forgotten about what happened with the 2005 film adaptation of The Producers?

[Globefan]

Posted: 6/2/21 at 1:54pm

I'd love the audition tapes to be on the home video release 

[BroadwayNYC2]

Posted: 6/2/21 at 4:39pm

“ it can just go into it the way it does on stage.”

No it can’t, film is not stage.

[Musical Master]

Posted: 6/3/21 at 10:30am

Exactly, film and theater are two different mediums that transferring one to another is an art onto itself that some film directors can do much better than others. Steven Spielberg is a great director who knows his stuff that him wanting to do this as his first film musical is honestly perfect.

[Globefan]

Posted: 6/3/21 at 2:22pm

I think Spielberg is really focusing on his magnum opus at this point in his life 

[Musical Master]

Posted: 6/3/21 at 8:03pm

Oh it's going to be great, even in the teaser I can sense the passion he's put into this. Also a new interview from David Newman about his music arranging and supervising work on West Side Story has been released. Go to 1:01:05 for him talking a little bit about his role in the new film, he does confirm that the soundtrack has just been complete and how great it turned out.

 

[Globefan]

Posted: 6/4/21 at 3:45pm

I hope the prologue has the longer version from the 1961 film 

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 6/4/21 at 9:40pm

Musical Master said: "Oh it's going to be great, even in the teaser I can sense the passion he's put into this. Also a new interview from David Newman about his music arranging and supervising work on West Side Story has been released. Go to 1:01:05 for him talking a little bit about his role in the new film, he does confirm that the soundtrack has just been complete and how great it turned out.

I am a film score geek and I collect them so thanks for sharing this! 

 

[Musical Master]

Posted: 6/4/21 at 9:54pm

You're very welcome. I thought the whole thing was very interesting to watch/listen to, David Newman is a great choice to work on the music arrangements/supervision for West Side Story. Honestly he's kind of underrated.

[NameGreg]

Posted: 6/5/21 at 11:27am

I like how he mentions like 5% of the score is original but based entirely off of the already existing music. Tells me that we’ll be getting something new that’s tasteful enough to not infringe on an already perfect soundtrack.

[Globefan]

Posted: 6/5/21 at 7:59pm

Only 6 months to go until the film is out! 

[Musical Master]

Posted: 6/5/21 at 10:59pm

6 months and 5 days left to be precise. It was only yesterday when 20th Century Studios (back then Fox), announced the project back in 2014 when Spielberg announced his intentions to direct it.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 6/6/21 at 10:05am

I may get chastised for writing this, but here goes: I never cared for the "Somewhere" ballet and it won't matter to me if it is included in this film version or not, although I do prefer that it isn't. 

What I am most interested in is how the choreography is going to be handled, especially "The Dance at the Gym" and "Cool" which are my two favorite numbers from the musical. 

I'm also interested in how Spielberg is going to handle the violence. 

[degrassifan]

Posted: 6/6/21 at 12:41pm

With Rita Moreno singing Somewhere, it really could be anything and placed anywhere in the story! 

In that David Newman interview, he kind of alluded that Riff and Bernado are killed toward the end of the movie. I wonder if he miscalculated the timing or if the rumble really happens toward the end instead of the middle? Also, I wonder which song he’s talking about that had additional musical arrangements after the Riff/Bernardo death scene.

[NameGreg]

Posted: 6/6/21 at 1:02pm

CarlosAlberto said: "I may get chastised for writing this, but here goes: I never cared for the "Somewhere" ballet and it won't matter to me if it is included in this film version or not, although I do prefer that it isn't.

What I am most interested in is how the choreography is going to be handled, especially "The Dance at the Gym" and "Cool" which are my two favorite numbers from the musical.

I'm also interested in how Spielberg is going to handle the violence."

I’m guessing it won’t be anything too explicit, but will be more violent and real than the average production. What we saw of the action in the trailer looked to be going that way.

[Musical Master]

Posted: 6/6/21 at 1:59pm

^ Agreed. If anything, the movie will be a "tougher" PG-13 film with the violence and language bumped up in comparison to the stage show and the original 1961 film. 

^^ I think David only made a slight error in Riff/Bernardo's deaths, "The Rumble" will still take place in the middle of the film as the stage show was. Tony Kushner has said that his script is much closer to Arthur Laurent's original book than Ernest Lehman's film screenplay, so we can expect "The Rumble" to happen which then afterwards leads to "I Feel Pretty".

[Globefan]

Posted: 6/6/21 at 2:17pm

When the new film opens, I'm gonna avoid comparing it to the 1961 film. 

[Musical Master]

Posted: 6/7/21 at 3:33pm

I think a comparison will come up for some people, but I think it could be it's own thing that can help the new film as a whole. If a test/advance screening happens in the future, I'm sure we can get a hint at what's coming.

[degrassifan]

Posted: 6/7/21 at 5:46pm

I am most curious about the song placements and the script/structure. I *think* the only placements we're sure of are Maria, Tonight and America. Everything else is up in the air! Rachel Zegler did an IG live a few weeks ago and someone asked her if she kept anything from set and she said she kept the lipstick from the I Feel Pretty set, so we probably know that's happening in a bedroom.