My favorite changes from the stage……..
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — West Side Story
Krishthegod — 9 years ago(January 19, 2017 09:33 PM)
Keep in mind, i've never actually seen the musical on stage, so maybe im not the best judge, but ive read enough about it to know some of the big differences.
I mean sure, the dubbed singing is different from live stage singing, less personal blah blah blah etc.
The changes i noticed, however, deal with the overall musicality. For example, changing the Overture to include Maria and not Somewhere was a nice change, amping up the Prologue score by a little more emphasis on percussion, as well as integrating the Procession and Nightmare from the stage to make the scene overall more chaotic. Also, extending the Mambo trumpet solo was a nice touch, and is actually my favorite iteration of the piece.
But my most favorite change was changing the key of Maria from Eb to Db. Given that West Side Story is very much a Romeo and Juliet-inspired, i always felt Maria should have a little bit of sadness to it, and, IMO, Eb can't convey that as well as the key of Db.
Granted, these are conceivably small changes compared to the song order of Krupke/Cool and America's lyrics, but the orchestral changes here and there are what stuck out to me the most. -
friendoffilm — 9 years ago(January 20, 2017 09:16 AM)
Thank you for a nice post, Krishthegod.
West Side Story
is a beautiful musical, both on screen and on stage, no matter which way anybody looks at it. There are many advantages to both stage and screen, and
West Side Story
has an incredible number of such advantages. One of my favorite changes to
West Side Story
when it was made into a movie was the fact that, in the
America
scene, the Shark girls were brought into that particular scene, as well, making it even more bright and intense. Still another favorite change in
West Side Story
's transformation from stage to screen was the fact that the order of the
Officer Krupke
and the
Cool
scenes were switched around; the fact that the
Officer Krupke
scene came before the War Council and the Rumble, and that the
Cool
scene came
after
the Rumble did a lot for the movie, and made it even more dramatic.