Time Magazine Article, is WSS Overated?- Page 2

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 3/27/09 at 1:07pm

I don't think it's so outlandish. Even here, there have been posters who review this production and blame Arthur Laurents for having Chino kill Tony instead of Indio, or staging America so there's another girl on the steps with Rosalia, or Shrenk coming into Maria's bedroom unannounced, or numerous other "problems" that have been in the show since 1957.

I think everyone just assumes they know West Side Story when they really don't. At least he has the balls to admit it.

Updated On: 3/27/09 at 01:07 PM

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 3/27/09 at 1:16pm

Reading the press of the time, a lot of the theatre critics didn't get the score.

I remember reading something about Mary Rodgers making a comment that there wasn't a single memorable tune in the show.

Tonight is one of those songs I think works brilliantly in context (when properly directed) in order to feel the jittery excitement and urgency of the moment, but it's not something I really enjoy listening to on its own. It's the ending of the song, the cool-down and farewell, that I find utterly gorgeous and brilliant. And then of course, the assemblage of counter melodies in juxtaposition of the original melody in the quintet. THAT is one of the most musically exciting numbers in musical theatre history and possibly the only reason I may visit the revival on Broadway. The quintet and the dance at the gym are the two scenes in the film that made me fall in love with West Side Story as a teenager.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/27/09 at 1:18pm

THAT is one of the most musically exciting numbers in musical theatre history

I completely agree.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 3/27/09 at 1:46pm

One original review:

John Chapman, Daily News:
"The music is by Leonard Bernstein. and it is superb. In it there is drive, the bounce, the restlessness, and the sweetness of our town. It takes up the American musical idiom where it was left when George Gershwin died. It is fascinatingly tricky and melodically beguiling."

And yes there were also nay sayers.

[Marquise]

Posted: 3/27/09 at 3:26pm

I agree with Mister Matt. The two numbers he cited were also the two numbers that fueled my obsession with WEST SIDE when I was growing up.

Even to this day whenever I watch the film those two numbers along with AMERICA and COOL are viewed more than once adding to the films 151 minute running length, but hey, it's WSS and it goes a long way!

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 3/27/09 at 3:29pm

Even so, I felt the production lacked some grandeur, largely because the dancers seemed a bit cramped on the stage of the Palace Theatre. (One night later I watched four actors nearly lost in a vast expanse of stage in a new comedy called The God of Carnage. Can theaters make midseason trades?)

Is this a joke? The Palace is one of the largest theaters on Broadway, and much bigger than the Bernard B. Jacobs, where "The [sic] God of Carnage plays".

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/27/09 at 4:05pm

And remember--as wickedrent has pointed out in this and other threads with so much more musicological smarts than I am capable of--you can't have the Quintet without first having "Tonight," and you can't have "Somewhere" without "Maria." Just sing the notes for "Ma-ri-a" and then sing the notes for "Some-where" and tell me you're not filled with awe at the emotional connection between them.

Bernstein was not merely writing pop songs for Broadway. He was attempting to write a score in the manner of Wagner and Mozart and Verdi, with motifs that prefigure and build into other songs. He hoped that this to be the beginning of a new wave of musical theater that would completely mesh words, music and dance--all three of which were deeply important to him.

His hopes might have been dashed after West Side, but that shouldn't detract from what his vision produced.