Time Magazine Article, is WSS Overated?

I found this article kinda inane. The "critic" starts the piece by saying:


"As someone who likes to think I have a fairly complete education in the Broadway musical, however, one show holds a special place: West Side Story. Of all the widely accepted masterpieces of the genre, it's the one I have never seen onstage. Nor even ? until a few weeks ago, when I finally broke down and rented the DVD ? the multiple-Oscar-winning 1961 movie. Of course, I know most of the Leonard Bernstein?Stephen Sondheim score; I've seen enough clips to be familiar with the famed Jerome Robbins choreography; and I'd have to be a pretty benighted theatergoer not to know at least the central conceit of the story ? Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet transplanted to the street gangs of New York City in the 1950s."

WHA?? He's a musical theatre critic for a major nationwide magazine and had never seen even the movie of WSS till now?? That seems like a drama critic saying he had heard enough excerpts from Hamlet so didn't need to bother seeing the full thing.

And his verdict is it's not quite the classic it's meant to be. yet he bases this verdict solely on the revival which he even aknowledges is quite changed from the original production. This bit floored me:

"What's more ? a heresy to even suggest ? I wonder if this score really belongs in the very top rank of American musicals. The jazzy, modernist, Gershwinesque rhythms of some of Bernstein's music ? "The Jet Song," "America" ? are still striking and original. But is there a duller love ballad in any major American musical than "Maria" ("Maria! I just met a girl named Maria!"), or its Muzak-ready twin brother, "Tonight" ("Tonight, tonight/ There's only you tonight")? "

??? I love both songs, particularly Maria, and maybe he overdosed on cover versions of it or something but come on. He can't think of ANY Broadway ballad that's mor boring or Muzak-ey than those two great love songs? WTF?

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1887470,00.html

ATC is discussing this ridiculous article too. I LOVE those two songs.

What kind of Communist doesn't like the song "Maria?"

Weird, I've always thought "Tonight" was a really energy-driven, dynamic-sounding love ballad, and I thought it always stood out from other romantic duets. It's always been one of my favorites. Then again, the singers make the song. I've heard some really horrible renditions.

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I think WSS's score is amazing, but maybe people find it overrated because it's played so much. I mean, a lot people can't take "I Feel Pretty" seriously anymore since Anger Management used it. Or those Gap commercials, which people in my high school used to make fun of.

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Updated On: 3/26/09 at 10:47 PM

While watching previews and performances during the 1980 revival, Jerry Robbins used to get up and leave during "One Hand, One Heart" and come back in for the Quintet and the Rumble.

He called it his "cigarette song.'

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Phyliss, if you skip MARIA or any other song, you are depriving yourself of the brillance of the entire score.
The way Bernstein used the melodies or partial melodies throughout the piece are beautiful, MARIA is an aria when sung correctly and as a lead in for TONIGHT, it's jaw-dropping.
There has been a lot of talk that Tony is a thankless and unfullfilled role, but I have seen it acted and sung to he point that you follow his story till he's tragic death.

If you want to stroke, there are movies for that.
The thing about Art, is everyone sees it differently.
Your opinion is totally valid.
I can't watch THE OFFICE.

I think it's really cool that he gets to be a theater critic at Time magazine without ever knowing West Side Story.

I think "being qualified" is overrated, don't you?

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"Frankly, when I listen to West Side Story, I often skip over Maria. I don't hate the song, but it's probably my least favorite in the show.

And I don't think it's that absurd the guy never saw it before. It happens. Some shows slip through the cracks for even the most fervid of theatregoers, I'd guess. I've never seen one moment of Guys and Dolls in any form. Camelot as well. It happens. "

Yep and that's fair enough. The difference is you're not calling Maria one of the dullest ballds in ANY Broadway show, and you're not the musical theatre critic for a national magazine.

That's funny about OHOH. Even from a musician perspective, I was allowed to conduct that song at certain rehearsals -- as opposed to the crazy 6/8, 3/4 of America, and 4/4, 2/4 of the Quintet, OHOH is just a slow 3/4, so that was the only song I was allowed to conduct. Don't get me wrong though, it's actually hard to play so quietly, but it's so so beautiful when you get it right, especially the opening, interlude, and end. That final note...love it.

Now, about this article... I already wrote a letter to the editor, posted on ATC, but I'll just post my anger again because boy, his comments on the score...

Tonight is bland?? Is he like deaf to the orchestra under it?? Those staccato notes we play that keep getting higher, faster, louder, it drives the song, makes it sound like its pulse is racing. Not to mention the importance of the Somewhere interludes.

And Maria...Tony is so excited by the sound of the name of his first love, that he takes off in front of the orchestra in the middle, when the orchestra takes over the melody, he just zooms ahead...that's bland? Especially when Larry Kert sings it, it's simply eargasmic. What a beautiful, simple way of defining first love. I mean, those 3 notes...

And as a brilliant poster on ATC mentioned, I bet he never heard of tritones or hemiolas. Then I'll add, or could tell you how Somewhere is present in most of Tony & Maria's songs, or know that A Boy Like That and I Have A Love are the same song...how the music drives the drama more successfully in this show than in any other.

Bernstein was a GENIUS and the score for WSS is just...in a class of its own.

At work, apparently my boss already read the article because when I screamed out "what??" in anger, he already knew what got me so upset.

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"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli

I just want to know how he got the job at Time magazine.

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Updated On: 3/27/09 at 11:57 AM

The material's fame and accolades are very well-deserved. Not overrated at all.

This production, however, doesn't do justice to the material. Based on Brantley's review (and other raves) the current revival is overrated.