West Side Story
1942
Robert Wise
and
Jerome Robbins

MUSICAL HISTORY

Musicals evolve

Musicals are pieces in which music (diagetic) occurs where it would not in real life. People (most) don’t suddenly start singing in the middle of a conversation. A film like Interrupted Melody, the biography of opera star Marjorie Lawrence is a drama with music since all the music takes part on opera stages, in singing classes etc., where in the real world people would sing. One can ask whether or not other performers are supposed to hear the other performer as singing or not.

One rule in musicals is “If it is too emotional to say, sing it. If it is too emotional to sing, dance it”. West Side Story was seen very much as a dancers’s musical.

The Black Crook 1866 is considered by some to be the first musical. Musicals are generally plays with spoken dialog and songs and dance

The “book” refers to the spoken lines (not lyrics although it sometimes means both lyrics and dialog which is sometimes called libretto) and the score – which is the lyrics and music together.

The work generally has an author/lyricist composer and choreographer.

Musicals are hard to distinguish in some cases from operas which are generally (but not always) durchkomponiert – or through composed. Some musicals are too.

It is often said that in musicals the performers are primarily actors who can sing whereas in opera they are singers who can act.

The method of singing is often different and one need only listen to West Side Story with an operatic cast (Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carreras) and a musical cast to hear the difference. Some feel the complexity of the music is greater in opera.

Musicals are generally performed in the language of the audience. Opera often is not.

So we have:

MUSICALS	OPERA
Songs, dialog, dance	Sung throughout (usually, sometimes dances)
language of audience	original language
less complex music	moore complex music
"belting" vocal style	"bel canto or supported vocal style
Actors who can sing	Singers who can act

These distinctions don’t hold as hard and fast rules. Some operas have spoken dialog and some musicals are sing throughout. Most clearly the difference is on the music and singing styles hence the “operatic’ version of West Side Story which differs from the Musical largely in terms of the production of the voice.

Certainly both have approached controversial subject matter.

Musicals have often played with “comic ethnic forms” including the minstrel shows. In many instances there were in Vaudeville and plays “ethnic comedians” Some however, attempted to approach real social problems as is the case with West Side Story (1957) although it is by no means the first to have done so. Show Boat (1927) , Porgy and Bess (1935) South Pacific (1949) These plays which dealt with tolerance with minorities would by Hair include sexual minorities as well. Wise is an editor who became a director (thank goodness!) Editors know how to make shots go together. A common complaint from directors is “This shot won’t cut”. That is the shot can not be followed by the next without some problem – movement stops too quickly or whatever. Editors are far more attuned to this problem so their films “cut” better. Actors who complain about directors who were “cutters” are usually those who rely on the director to tell them their job. Actor’s studio people are forever asking “What is my motivation?” Well, if they knew what they were doing as actors they would know what their motivation was, but they don’t know the “craft”. Janet Leigh reported tha when Hitchcock hired her for Psycho he told her and Perkins “I am not going to tell you what to do. I hired you because you are competent actors. I will tell you what I need in each shot. The rest is up to you.” Bravo hitch!

West Side Story started out as a way to update Romeo and Juliet. Originally called East Side Story, it was going to be about Catholics and Jews on the lower East side during Passover/Easter, but the arrival of many Hispanics (largely Puerto Ricans) in NY when the serious work began caused a shift to a Puerto Rican/Anglo conflict on the West Side

The film itself did better than the stage play which ran over 700 performances to critical acclaim.

The film was directed by Robert Wise in 1961 and won an amazing 10 academy awards. Wise had not directed a musical but was known for being Welles' editor on Kane and Ambersons and Cat People. Wise, an incredibly versatile and prolific director, had directed Curse of the Cat People, Body Snatchers, The Set-Up, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Somebody Up There Likes Me, Run Silent Run Deep, I Want to Live, and Odds Against Tomorrow (among others) before West Side Story. Later he went on to do The Haunting, Sound of Music, Sand Pebbles, Andromeda Strain, Hindenberg and Audrey Rose (among others).

Interestingly enough, it did not get the award for best musical as a stage show. That went to Music Man. In historical development of art forms, a new style appears and evolves. When it reaches its peak, there is usually some specific work which is seen as the capstone to the period, and usually the new style is just appearing then and is revolutionary. In the case of the Tony, they chose to give it to the capstone piece (Music Man) rather than the innovative one (West Side Story)

The casting of Natalie Wood as Maria, and Richard Beymer as Tony is strange since neither sings the role. Carol Lawrence and Larry Kert were considered too “unknown” to bank the film on, although Beymer was not exactly a household name then or now. Chita Rivera was replaced by Rita Moreno Neither Wood nor Lawrence was Hispanic.

The standard problems of musical films are here - how to break into song and dance. This is especially true here where the dancers are largely male and members of street gangs.

The stage tends to handle such things in some ways better than film, film in the US is strongly realistic; stage is less so.

How is it done here?

Watch for the way in which the camera is used

Watch the lighting and the costume and set design. There is a good deal of color coding in the film. Can you tell what it is

It has been said that if the scene at the gym where Tony meets Maria doesn’t work the play fails. How does Wise handle that scene? What grounds or evidence is there in the text for handling it the way Wise did?

After the Film

There is some question about the lyrics and whether the text is “Puerto Rican”. Should we assume that songs like “I Feel Pretty" are actually beings sung in translation? Is the same true of the dialog.

THERE ARE PROBLEMS ABOUT ACCENTS. Should characters have them when they are “speaking English” and lose them when they are speaking their native languages even though they are speaking English?

In the scene at the gym, the film goes out of focus except for Tony and Maria. How does this relate to the line in the “Tonight” “I saw you and the world went away”?

What kinds of colors are associated with the Puerto Ricans in their clothing and houses?

Notice the way in which Anita’s clothing matches Bernardo’s.

Notice the use of reds in the sky for the rumble.

Notice the way the buildings obliterate the sky in most scene. Compare this with the openning shots of the buildings of New York looking like "canyons". We have to descend down into the filthy streets from a very clean sky and images of shiny buildings which look like "post card pictures" of New York. Noptice how the opening "line drawing" is almost unrecognizable until the image becomes a photographic bview of the NY skyline. The picture perfect world diossolves into the grime of teh street when you get down into it.

In terms of the text and subtext, where does the story place the blame for the problems? Is is societal? (Gee Officer Krupke), failure of the system to deal with the problem. What is the plainclothes cop’s worry? Does he take sides? Is he worried about where he will be sent if he doesn’t keep peace on the street?

Once the social forces and in operation, then how do individuals react? Why does the gang taunt Anita and cause her to lie to them. There are many places along the way where the tragedy could have been averted – if Maria had let the “fair fight” happen instead of insisting Tony stop it altogether, if the gang hadn’t harassed Anita, if Anita hadn’t lied to them about Maria etc. etc. etc. This is part of the nature of the tragedy.

THE FILM WAS SHOT IN PART ON LOCATION IN NYC Here are some of the places used"

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