West Side Story 1980 — Page 2

That's just it. It's just "Bam!" in the new production.

Arthur threw out Jerry's perfectly timed and choreographed transition and replaced it with something that starts with tacky multicolored streamers (more like discs) coming down at no particular point in the music, Maria NOT twirling but standing behind the discs (in LIGHTS that twirled!) and the dancers mushing on behind her like tired commuters angling for trains at rush hour at Penn Station. Everything happens at once in Arthur's staging--there is no clean line for the audience to follow--and it all happens upstage of the tacky disc-streamers. Arthur even has the two girls twirl before Maria does--thereby losing the psychological connection in Robbins's staging that the girls were an extension of the excitement that was going on in Maria's mind.

The psychology is gone, the storytelling is gone, the timing is gone, the choreography is muddled, and the Jerry Robbins magical effect is destroyed. Deliberately.

This is a minor aspect of the desecration of Robbins's work done in this production. This beautiful little transition was lost along with major losses like the nightmare in the ballet, the staging of the finale, and the extra flourishes that defined Anita's character in the Mambo and America. All lost so that Arthur Laurents get a little revenge on Jerome Robbins before he died, by reducing the brilliance of Jerome Robbins's contribution to West Side Story and enhance Arthur's own.

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"The music is the little repetitive transition figure (DAH-da-da, DAH-da-da, DAH-da-da...), which I remember being told is based on the interval that Lenny used to unite the whole score ("Ma-ri-a!" "Some-where!" etc.), but you'd have to ask someone more musically included to explain how intervals are similar"

This isn't one connection I've paid particular attention to (but I'm pretty sure it's DAH-da-da-da, DAH-da-da-da, unless the music I played in high school was different?) but from what I know, especially considering the use of the word "interval," I imagine it has to do with the jumps in whole steps to half steps -- for the first, maybe 6 bunch of 4's (not entirely positive 6 is right), where the first 4 are slower and speed up, in clarinet key, it's C to D, C to D, which is whole steps, which is interval notes for "Some-where," and then when it gets faster on the 7th group of 4, it goes to chromatic differences in notes, so D to E flat, E flat to E, etc, which is a half step, the interval difference for Ri-A." But considering this is just from a clarinet part, I could be totally and completely wrong, and I could be playing some weird kind of harmony (shrug). All I know is it's one of the many many parts of the music I loved to play, loved the focus on the accents, and speeding up, and hitting that last note that lead into "The Blues."

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The famous interval that Lenny used in West Side Story was the Tritone...The Augmented 4th or Diminished 5th.

PalJoey, I think the easiest way for you to look for the tritone is to listen for it in the different pieces. The interval itself is heard first in the whistle in the "Prologue", as well as in the 'Ma-ri' at the start of the refrain of "Maria". It's also in "Cool" and all over the place and then sometimes its inverted to (in "Something's Coming" and in "Gee Officer Krupke"). In the transition to "Dance at the Gym", the interval occurs right at the very start of the piece, the first two notes before it melts into the little vamp that builds into the full transition between the scenes.

Along with the tritone, you have to remember the diminished seventh, which also plays a role in the score, though a lesser one, but which is (if I'm remembering correctly) introduced in the music at the end of "Tonight" and then picked up in the first line ('there's a') of "Somewhere".

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The way PalJoey described it is the way I remember the 1996 national tour performance I saw staged the gym transition. That tour was a faithful recreation of the original and I'm so glad I got to see it. I remember being surprised it was very close to how it is done in the film version and thought it was interesting that the film adopted much of it.

I saw the revival tour in December, 2010. While I'll never say it was awful, you'd be better off asking someone else for details on the staging, dancing, sets, lighting, and some of the performances because I barely remember a thing.

It's not that I have a bad memory when it comes to shows. No way. My mind is sharpest in that regard and I recall and catch details most everyone else misses, but the revival was forgettable due to its removal of all those details that may seem like no big deal or only things a purist cares about to most. By itself, it was good in that it had talented cast members, fluid staging, and attractive/serviceable design elements. So I'd tell anyone who enjoyed it to not feel they shouldn't have based on what others say about other productions.

Enjoyable it was but I remember a WSS that was thrilling and unforgettable.

Oh yes, and one that didn't reduce that spine tingling brass section to a mere squawking as in the revival tour, lol.

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^ That was an interesting arrangement. To tell the truth before I knew of Genarro's involvement I had always suspected someone had helped Robbins' with the choreography, especially the Sharks' dances in the gym and America.

Funny that Genarro's name is nowhere to be found in the film's credits.

uggh





I hate it-it ruined WSS for me. The costumes and set looked cheap and tacky, the performances (Debbie Allen was out the day I saw it) were uninspired to say the least.