Steven Spielberg's WEST SIDE STORY - News & Discussion Thread — Page 38

degrassifan said: "joevitus said: “I'm curious where you get yourinfo from. I'm not challenging you, but I mostly know the story of the show's construction fromSondheim and Co., where Laurents says Krupke was put after the rumble because Robbins and Bernstien hadn't wanted any comedy in the show to begin with and could only be persuaded to do it by Laurents referencingShakespeare's clowns. Even then, they insisted it be insertedas an emotional release following the death of Riff--and Laurents even says ultimately he thought they wereright because, coming early in the movie, the song only came across asa silly number.

I certainly don't think Laurents was the soul of trustworthy info, but I'm interested in who gave an alternative version of the song's placement, as well as the striking of the Sharks from "America.""

There are multiple sources that talk about it, but here’s a website that detailsall three numbers and their changes —

Cool vs Gee Officer Krupe and America"

Thank you!

David Newman's arrangements for "The Mambo" and "America" sounds amazing and I'll bet it will sound GLORIOUS on the big screen with a great sound system. Alongside the music, the numbers are going to be great and it also confirms that "America" is going to be opened up big time in comparison to the original film.

Justin Peck's choreography looks incredible on film and I'm happy it was a talented person like him who got hired.

I would give anything to read the screenplay. Digging the new book.

A trailer can only do so much

Tag said: "So much sense flare, jeez"

You mean "lens flares"? At least Spielberg is a filmmaker who knows how to use them, others try and fail at it that it's more hilarious than annoying.

Yeah the gym scene is where that's very apparent and everywhere, but thankfully unlike JJ Abrams who I swear brightens the lens flares to an overwhelming, ludicrous amount; at least here it's only just slightly in the way some of the time. I think it kind of works in the moment where Maria and Tony first meet and talk for this first time, here I think it might be used to give the cinematography a sense of color and fantasy.

Musical Master said: "So, any word on a possible release date for the soundtrack? Or is it still up in the air?"

Earlier in this thread someone posted that the soundtrack's release date is December 10th, same as the film. I've done a search and found no evidence of this myself.

Hollywood Records (the Disney owned record imprint) will be releasing the soundtrack and they do not have anything up on their official website at all.

SpiritualGangster said: "Hollywood Records(the Disney owned record imprint) will be releasing the soundtrack and they do nothave anything up on their official website at all."

Based on previous films like this, we should expect the soundtrack December 3 or 10 and their website is more as-it-happens than in-advance as far as listing releases goes.

Btw someone in this thread mentioned they were nervous cause of how the arrangements of the songs sounded in the trailer.

Something I've learned about musical theatre film trailers is they get these tracks that are close to the original but sound more "trailer epic" you can definitely hear it in the Into the Woods trailer with this big epic instrumentation for Stay with Me that was nowhere to be found in the film. The arrangements of that movie as we all know were incredibly faithful.

I think in reality especially with someone like David Newman on board who's an old school guy, the score is most likely going to be preserved in all its Bernstein orchestrated glory.

I mean it's possible I could be wrong but "America" for instance didn't even have the full chord progression it usually does so I just assumed it's an "America for a trailer track"

Musical Master said: "SpiritualGangster said: "Musical Master said:
"I'm glad that from the looks of things, Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner has restored these two songs back to where they were before."

Are you sure? I don't see any evidence of this to be true."

Many articles have said that this version is going to be a lot closer to the original stage version than the 1961 film. Yes, thinking that it's going to be faithful by reverting those two songs back to their original placements is an assumption, but it's a good guess on my part.

Once the soundtrack is announced it's release date and tracklist we'll know."

They said this version will be closer, but we've already seen them doing the movie's version of America, so I think it's still fairly up in the air. Also, recent comments have seemingly indicated we'll see song placements that are unique to this film rather than either the stage show or previous cinematic adaption.

No songs will be removed, thankfully.