West Side Story
Directors: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise
22 July 2024
See
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet but adapted with the leads being Tony (Richard Beymer) and Maria (Natalie Wood). Instead of Elizabethan England and rival houses it’s 1960s New York City youth gangs, the Caucasian (Polak) already established Jets, and the up and coming Latino Sharks.
Think
Previous viewings had me appreciate the dancing, especially as they rumble while dance fighting, the jump twirls being distinctive choreography to this musical.
This time I focused on the lyrics and musicality of the immigrant story. All from the 1957 original stage production by writer Stephen Sondheim, a lyrical genius, and composer Leonard Bernstein being a musical one. More than famous show tunes like Maria!, Gee, Officer Krupke, or I Feel Pretty is America! It speaks volumes with nostalgia for Puerto Rico weighed against the grass is always greener in NYC.
ANOTHER GIRL
Industry boom in America.
BOYS
Twelve in a room in America.
ANITA
Lots of new housing with more space.
BERNARDO
Lots of doors slamming in our face.
ANITA
I'll get a terrace apartment.
BERNARDO
Better get rid of your accent.
ANITA AND THREE GIRLS
Life can be bright in America.
ALL BOYS
If you can fight in America.
ALL GIRLS
Life is all right in America.
ALL BOYS
If you're all-white in America.
Feel
Whether it’s Shakespearean succession stories of King Lear adapted by Akira Kurasawa as Ran, or Romeo and Juliet retold here by directors Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise as an immigrant love tale with West Side Story, there’s something timeless about these films and the themes feeling modern and relevant about whether America continues to be a melting pot for immigrants paved with streets of gold or whether it expects them to pave those streets in the current climate of fractious US politics. Both these films are either period pieces or look aesthetically dated, I wonder if the 2021 version has a strong subtext of how different Tony and Maria are yet still love each other, or if the focus is more on that love than what it bridges.
