Washington Post Article on Laurents and "West Side Story"

Pretty interesting and revealing article about the coming WSS revival (anyone else realize it was premiering TOMORROW?)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/12/AR2008121200918.html

It seems that they're trying to shift the perspective to that of the Sharks, doing away with the final "procession" tableau, translating "I Feel Pretty" into Spanish among others, and drastically reducing the "Officer Krupke" staging. Good on him for trying to reshape what has kind have become a museum piece. It seems like they're really trying to shake it up and make it a little more surprising and relevant, rather than "recreating" it.

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Thanks for the link! I'm still not convinced about this revival but I can't wait to see it. There's just a huge part of me that is thinking, "If it ain't broke..."

(and it makes me nervous that Laurents "abhors" the movie...)

Ah, so the Spanish was Tom Hatcher's idea, just like finally allowing Patti to play Rose was Tom's idea.

That man was a saint, to put up with Arthur for 52 years.

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Updated On: 12/14/08 at 06:46 PM

I'll be there tomorrow night. I'm excited- I got tickets months ago and it was only last week that it occurred to me how soon it was.

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I will also be there tomorrow night.

I don't think that, if the production has a problem, the Spanish will be it (though financially I can see why that might be, as you may limit the audience). The whole "age appropriate" thing may come back to bite them in the ass, but that situation is way overblown, IMHO (though, in fairness, that is Laurents' own doing).

In fact, I frankly don't understand the trepidation over the Spanish (other things I could). Forty years later, the forced Spanish accents and painted skin are extremely distracting. It was what it was for the time, but in modern times it brings attention to itself in a way that's not quite right.

Really? Because it was my understanding that there's been no ruling on whether or not directorial decisions can be copyrighted.

Seriously, if anything's been written on the exact legal reasons why a stage production of West Side Story couldn't switch the order of the songs, too, I'd be fascinated to see it, because I'm writing a paper on a related topic.

Do we know if this production is having the men of the Sharks join in on "America"?

I do think, though, that switching the order of those two songs is more than a directorial choice.

Then what is it? Because you can only copyright certain things, and direction isn't one of them so far as I've seen. Which is why movies rip off and pay tribute to each other's scenes by using identical camera angles, etc. all the time.

I suppose there's an argument to be made that switching the scenes would be violating copyright on Ernest Lehman's screenplay somehow, but I'm not sure even that holds much water. But I can't say much there because I'm not totally up on the copyright aspects of adaptations or derivative works. (Still researching that paper, after all.)

I guess that since the legal trend on copyright has been towards massive overreach and overly broad protections, MGM might go for it for ****s and giggles, but it's tough for me to see how a stage production that switches the order of those scenes takes any more or less money from their DVD sales than a stage production that doesn't switch the order of the scenes. It's still West Side Story.

Updated On: 12/14/08 at 10:06 PM

There's also Arthur's pride. He HATES the movie version (mostly because he didn't write it) and refuses to believe that the changes Ernest Lehman and Robert Wise made actually improved his script.

And he also refuses to admit that the biggest thing wrong with West Side Story is his godawful Jets dialogue.

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You people writing in this thread about how Arthur "should" use the structure of the movie really need to read Arthur's (unreadable) memoir, "Original Story By," so you can understand exactly the gargantuan dimensions of his ego.

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Oh, I found it readable for that reason alone!

It's a good not to treat West Side Story as a museum piece. I guess Laurents is being Laurents when he plays down the contributions his collaborators made when the show was first written. I wonder if the Bernstein and Robbins estates have any say in the changes Laurents is planning to make. The music is the best part of the show. The gang slang makes me cringe.

When you get right down to it, Arthur Laurents is a third rate playwright. His plays are seldom done anymore. His screenplays are dated. His reputation will rest on the books for West Side Story and Gypsy. It must kill him that Bernstein, Sondheim and Robbins are more famous.

Well, one thing that makes me very, very excited about the revival and less nervous is that apparently during rehearsals, the Bernstein estate has taken special care to ensure that not one note of the brilliant score is changed -- every flat, every sharp. Thank goodness. That's one aspect of WSS that should never be changed.

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well, in all fairness, he is not the first writer to fail at emulating what he perceives to be modern "teenspakk," nor will he be the last.