West Side Story 5/29/2023

I just bought the DVD of the musical "West Side Story (Steven Spielberg)" and it was and it was outstanding.

West Side Story is a 2021 American musical romantic drama film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Tony Kushner.  It is the second feature-length adaptation of the 1957 stage musical of the same name.  It stars Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler in her film debut with Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, Mike Faist, and Rita Moreno in supporting roles.  Moreno, who starred in the 1961 film adaptation, also served as an executive producer alongside Kushner.  The film features music composed by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

The film entered development in 2014 at 20th Century Fox; Kushner began writing the screenplay in 2017.  In January 2018, Spielberg was hired and casting began that September.  Justin Peck choreographed the dance sequences.  Principal photography occurred in New York and New Jersey; filming began in July 2019 and ran for two months.

West Side Story had its world premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater in New York City on November 29, 2021, three days after Sondheim's death.  The film was later theatrically distributed by 20th Century Studios in the United States on December 10, after being delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The film received critical acclaim with praise for the performances of the cast, Spielberg's direction, and the cinematography, with some critics deeming it superior to the 1961 film.  It was named one of the top ten films of 2021 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute.  The film grossed $76 million against a $100 million production budget.  Among its multiple awards and nominations, it received seven nominations at the 94th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, with DeBose winning Best Supporting Actress.  It also received four nominations at the 79th Golden Globe Awards, winning three, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical for Zegler, and Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for DeBose.

In 1957, the Jets are a gang of white youths that fight the Puerto Rican Sharks for control of San Juan Hill on Manhattan's Upper West Side.  Officer Krupke and Lieutenant Schrank break up a skirmish, telling the gangs that their conflict is pointless since the neighborhood will soon be demolished to make way for Lincoln Center.  The gangs are too proud to care, and Jet leader Riff proposes a "rumble" (fight) between the two gangs.  He approaches his friend Tony, who is on parole, for help.  Tony refuses, wishing to turn over a new leaf with the help of Valentina, the Puerto Rican owner of Doc's general store.  Meanwhile, Maria, Shark leader Bernardo's sister, is betrothed to his friend Chino, but yearns for independence.  At a neighborhood dance, Tony and Maria meet and fall in love, angering Bernardo, who agrees to Riff's terms for a rumble if Tony attends.  Tony tells Maria of his love and the couple meets on her fire escape, promising to see each other the next day.  - Wikipedia

I remember seeing the earlier version somewhere, and I had forgotten that the story is a Tragedy, because it's a story about prejudice, the tragic reliance on violence to solve the goal of misplaced pride against the love between a boy (Tony, Jets) and girl (Maria, Sharks).

This version was otherwise enjoyable.

 

Trailer

 

BROADWAY - "The Band's Visit"

"In Broadway’s ‘The Band’s Visit,’ mistranslation leads to musical connection" PBS NewsHour 12/20/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  When the members of an Egyptian band arrive in an Israeli city for a performance, it's clear something is wrong -- they've gotten the name wrong and ended up in a sleepy desert town.  That's the premise of a new musical, "The Band's Visit," that's connecting with audiences and critics alike.  Jeffrey Brown reports.

BROADWAY - "Dear Evan Hansen"

"Broadway hit 'Dear Evan Hansen' strikes an emotional chord with its fans" PBS NewsHour 6/6/2017

NOTE:  "Dear Evan Hansen" won 2017 Tony Awards:

• Best Musical
• Leading actor: Ben Platt
• Featured actress: Rachel Bay Jones
• Original score:  music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  “Dear Evan Hansen,” a surprise hit musical, is the story of an ordinary teen who all his life has felt invisible.  But when a classmate commits suicide, Hansen is mistakenly seen as his one friend and becomes the center of attention.  The Tony-nominated show draws awareness to the loneliness and pain of teen life and how isolation can be intensified in today's social media world.  Jeffrey Brown reports.

MUSICALS - West Side Stroy's 60th

"The musical rumble that makes listeners love 'West Side Story'" PBS NewsHour 9/26/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  On this day nearly six decades ago, “West Side Story” premiered on Broadway.  And the music of the Sharks and the Jets, and star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria is as vibrant as it was in 1957.  Jeffrey Brown sits down with composer and musician Rob Kapilow to discuss what it is about Leonard Bernstein's hit musical style that has allowed the love story to live on for decades.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Finally tonight, on a light note:  On this day in 1957, “West Side Story” debuted on Broadway.

Composer and musician Rob Kapilow is back to tell us why the music has withstood the test of time.

Jeffrey Brown sat down with Kapilow recently.

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  Ron Kapilow, welcome back.

ROB KAPILOW, Composer:  It's great to be here.

JEFFREY BROWN:  So, “West Side Story,” one of the most famous musicals in history, but not quite what it was intended to be, I guess.

ROB KAPILOW:  I think that's true.

You know, Leonard Bernstein had already written two his musicals, “On the Town” and “Wonderful Town,” and those shows are filled with Bernstein's love, facility, and affection for the popular music of the day.  But they're lighthearted musicals, fundamentally.

And now he wanted to do something serious, and he got together an incredibly serious crew of guys.  I mean, we had Jerome Robbins, who did serious ballets.  We had Arthur Laurents, who wrote serious plays.  We had Leonard Bernstein, and they wanted to do something serious.

That was the amazing thing about Bernstein.  He could actually do both, and he crossed over.  And this whole piece is really about, in a way, the conflict between those two worlds, between the serious world.

This is going to be, he called a tragic musical comedy, if that's not an oxymoron.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Tragedies get turned into operas all the time.

ROB KAPILOW:  All the time.

In fact, tragedy is the lifeblood of opera.  It's not really an opera unless somebody dies at the end.  But people don't usually die at the end in a Broadway musical.

And this one had a body count of three, with two of them dead at the first act curtain.  I mean, that is not the stuff of a Broadway musical, not to mention a classic Shakespeare play, “Romeo and Juliet,” as the background.

ARTS - The New "Porgy and Bess"

"New rendition of classic opera ‘Porgy and Bess' offers a ‘greater truth'" PBS NewsHour 6/9/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Since its first performance in 1935, “Porgy and Bess” has earned acclaim as one of American history's best pieces of musical theater.  But over time, many have come to view the opera's black characters as stereotypes.  Now, a new production in Charleston aims to rectify the issue by emphasizing the characters' -- and the city's -- African roots.  Jeffrey Brown reports.

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  “Summertime,” from the 1934 American opera classic “Porgy and Bess.”  It's a story set in Charleston and now being performed here as the centerpiece of the 40th anniversary celebration of the Spoleto Festival USA.

The music was familiar, but as the opera progressed, it had a less familiar look, just as visual director Jonathan Green wanted.

JONATHAN GREEN, Artist:  You have to know what the stereotypes are to move away from the stereotypes.

JEFFREY BROWN:  And what did you see in the stereotypes?

JONATHAN GREEN:  I saw in the stereotypes a complete disrespect of a continent of Africa, not being a part of the culture of a people.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Green, one of Charleston's most prominent artists, is himself from the Gullah community, descendants of West African slaves who lived in this area, the very setting of “Porgy and Bess,” for which he's imagined a kind of alternative history.

JONATHAN GREEN:  What if West Africans came as immigrants?  What would we be looking at?  What would we see?  And what are we missing because we haven't supported that?

JEFFREY BROWN:  The bright colors, patterns, and vivid designs, Green believes, fill in a missing piece and offer a greater truth about both the opera and the city.

Set in the 1920s, “Porgy and Bess” is the story of the disabled beggar Porgy, sung by Lester Lynch, the beautiful prostitute Bess, Alyson Cambridge, and their life in Catfish Row, a Charleston tenement.  It's based on the 1925 novel “Porgy” by DuBose Heyward, who lived near the real-life tenement, then called Cabbage Row.

HARLAN GREENE, Historian:  This very picturesque place was once a slum.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Local historian Harlan Greene has studied the period and the people.  He even found this photo of the real-life man, Samuel Smalls, on whom Porgy is based.

I asked him about the success of Heyward's original novel.

HARLAN GREENE:  What he did that was truly earth-shattering is that he showed a love story between a black man and a black woman, and this — a passionate love affair.  And it wasn't Uncle Remus.  It wasn't Aunt Jemima.  He took real people, and it wasn't a race novel.  It wasn't a stereotype.

He shattered all sorts of conventions at the time.