I remember seeing West Side Story back in 1961 or '62. I was 13/14. I think the movie was rated for "Mature Audiences" and the Catholic Legion of Decency (ugh) rated it "Unobjectionable for Adults" but somehow I got in to see it. Probably with a couple of my friends from Catholic school. I thought it was great and it has always been my favorite musical.
I think "Officer Krupke" is my favorite number in the soundtrack, followed by "Cool" - I must have harbored secret delinquent tendencies.
Or did I know at some level that it was the creation of "four jewish gay men" as stated in the first video below?
ABC 20/20 did an hour special last evening on Steven Spielberg's new re-make of West Side Story which was a fascinating look behind the scenes with interviews with Spielberg, Rita Moreno and several of the actors. What struck me was how all the members of the cast are just such nice, warm, intelligent, likable people.
I am contemplating suspending COVID caution to see the new production when it comes out...but that seems too risky right now...I will likely wait...till...
Here are some videos of the 20/20 episode that aired last night...I think these three videos are the complete show.
4 comments:
I'm looking forward to seeing it too -- once it hits a streaming service. I'm not going to the cinemas yet either.
I look forward to seeing it.
A remake, how interesting. Only Spielberg has the chops to pull that off, I would think. WSS only slowly entered my consciousness - one of those far-away things that had already happened before I was old enough to know what Broadway was. I sometimes heard - and liked - the songs "Tonight" and "Somewhere," but it wasn't until I was long past grown and had a VCR that I finally watched the movie. Brilliant "remake" of Romeo & Juliet, I thought: a real classic in its own right.
Not sure I want to see the new version - its one thing to create a story out of the happenings of your own day and time - and something else to make a story about a day and time long past, and usually people get it wrong, distorted, or overwritten with modern-day meanings. We'll see if Spielberg rewrites it as a PC manifesto or not.
I knew Sondheim and Bernstein wrote the lyrics & music - never thought of them and their colleagues as "four Jewish guys" before - how interesting. A very happy conjunction of talents. Much more than I had at age 25, or at any later time.
*Correction* - I meant to say "four Jewish gay guys."
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