West Side Story

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 1:37am

I was having a discussion with my aunt and uncle about how great, different and influential this musical was and decided it needed its own thread. Some of my own feelings about it:

First off, the orchestrations are amazing. I played this score recently in high school, will do so again in summer theatre, and it's just the most amazing and challenging score. The music is so different, but fits the story so well. The orchestrations on their own tell a story. For the prologue, the music goes from organizing who the Jets and Sharks are, each with their own music, to changing chords completely when the gangs begin to fight. The tension of the mambo is captured in the score, as is the beauty and innocence of Tony and Maria's first meeting. The romantic songs have beautiful melodies. There is no other piece of music I could ever describe as cool. The dream, going from a cute little ballet to a nightmare, as the music provides all the changes. The playfulness in Gee Officer Krupke, the conflicting feelings of Anita and Maria in A Boy Like That, and the sorrow felt during the finale. As amazing as everything else is, The Rumble is truly fantastic!! For the music to capture everything that's happening, the fighting gets more intense, than they carefully go around each other, everything building up to the climactic moments of the Rumble, the scaredness at the end. Did I mention I think Leonard Bernstein is a genius?(okay, I'm a pit geek, HAD to make this the longest paragraph)

Of course Jerome Robbins' choreography works intertwinably with the amazing music. The dancing tells as much of the story as the music does--the fact that fights, rumbles, feelings, tension could all be captured in dance is such a tribute to Jerome Robbins. The tension dance-off during the Mambo, the dancing while trying to be cool, the ballet, the Rumble again(becuase I think it's so amazing). My uncle brought up an interesting point in our discussion tonight-he said it's one of the few shows that if you just listen to the orchestrations and watch the show, and hear no lyrics or dialogue, you could completley follow the story--thanks to Bernstein and Robbins.

Both these, particularly the dancing, lead to be influential on Broadway, but of course the turn in telling a very sad, dark story certainly influenced many, many shows after it. When one considers the Music Man(not my favorite) was thought of as an appropriate story that year, it is really amazing what WSS accomplished, even way ahead of its time. The remastering of such a classic story, but making the story its own, entertwining everything perfectly. Okay done rambling.

[hannahshule]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 5:06am

I heart WWS big time!

[phantom_tenor]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 7:52am

Don't you be forgetting Sondheim's lyrics....

I think we can all agree that Bernstein was a genius.

The movie version does no justice to the show.

[SallyBrown]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 7:53am

I love this show! One of my favorites, I agree with everything you said completely.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 11:54am

Considering most other horrid representations of shows as musicals, I didn't think WSS's movie was that bad. It definitely had it's fault-the miscast leads, the decision to dub everyone, the removal of even a shortened version of the dream ballet/nightmare sequence, but it also improved on some aspects of the show. Certainly the movie's version of "America" sung between the girls and the boys as opposed to just the girls, with lyrics much more intense and with a bigger message was definitely an improvement. Also, tinkering with the order of songs helped it too. They realized it didn't make sense for the Jets to be joking around with a song like "Gee Officer Krupke" after the rumble and deaths occured, so they switched it in the position with "Cool," which also fit better as an intense number after the rumble. I wouldn't put it up with the only two movies I think are better than the show(Grease and Sound of Music), but it really isn't so bad compared to some others(Chorus Line).

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 1:29pm

the show is a riveting masterpiece-- I find it exciting from the very moment it starts. This film is also a masterpiece. What an amazing achievement, and a very richly deserved Best Oscar win (including all the other Oscars it won!)
Thank goodness for the film of WEST SIDE STORY because it seems that is what cemented the stage show as a classic, led to song legends from the score, etc. It has been written in a number of book that the film of WEST SIDE STORY was integral to future successful productions or even further interest in the show.
Thank goodness for them both!! I love the show, I love the movie (except for the performance of Tony, which seems oddly out of place and unmasculine in the film.)