WSS 'Gang' Members

[binau]

Posted: 6/8/09 at 8:47am

Arthur Laurents:

"The musical theatre and cultural conventions of 1957 made it next to impossible for the characters to have authenticity. Every member of both gangs was always a potential killer even then. Now they actually will be."

How did he actually attempt to do this? And he failed right?

[Oldschool]

Posted: 6/8/09 at 10:11am

He didn't and that's the problem. His avenue for creating tension was using Spanish. The problem was that it's a dance heavy show and they got great dancers, but not great actors. One audience member in DC's pre-broadway run said, "They look like a bunch of gay computer geeks." Peter Marks, the theatre reviewer for the Washington Post, said in his review that his date for the evening during the intermission said that she could take the gangs. I don't want anyone to think that I'm coming down on gay performers, which I am decidedly not. Rather that in this instance, they weren't good enough actors. In one scene in Doc's, one of the Jets acted like he was impersonating Doogie Howser. Even in the movie, the gangs conveyed more menace and that didn't have any Spanish.

The other problem that Laurent's didn't address was the weakness in the book in that the Sharks don't have any lines.

[LotteTBS138]

Posted: 6/8/09 at 10:35am

>>one of the Jets acted like he was impersonating Doogie Howser. <<

Blame youtube and Dr Horrible for this one! And the Tony's for having NPH as the host as a refresher course.