Just reading the play scriptit is so full of awkward and rushed dialogue, inconsistencies with characters and situations
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StrongRex — 15 years ago(August 19, 2010 12:51 PM)
You're welcome, and thanks for your compliments. I saw West Side Story for the first time in my 8th grade choir, and I have been a fan since my 15th birthday when I got the tape, and that was almost 7 years ago. So in that amount of time I have done research and tried to get in the show myself (though I was in it once and it wasn't a good experience).
Yes, I knew that he and Natalie Wood were not on good terms throughout the making of the movie. I couldn't tell when watching the movie that they weren't, so I give them both credit for expressing believable chemistry. I heard that one reason she didn't like him was because she, yes, had been dating Warren Beatty at the time and had wanted him to be Tony. But here is my personal opinion with that; if she really had such an issue with Beymer, she should have taken it up with the directors who cast him. It wasn't Beymer's fault he got cast as Tony, he probably auditioned just like everybody else. Plus, he was having a hard enough time trying to deal with Wise, as I mentioned earlier.
Also, she was already co-starring with Beatty in Splendor in the Grass that same year, so wasn't that enough? And Natalie Wood, being a child starshe of all people should have realized that being an actress involves expanding your horizons and working with many different people, not the same person all the time. Being upset at something really trivial like not working with the same person in one movie that you worked with in another movie just because you are personally involved with that personthat was really childish on Wood's part.
Where Beymer and Wood stood has a good ending though. I'm slightly iffy on this one, but I think a few years later, Beymer ran into her and she called him over. Not one to hold a grudge, Beymer walked over and they talked. He reported that she was very friendly and that she was a genuinely good person. -
movibuf1962 — 15 years ago(August 19, 2010 01:48 PM)
I love that someone is revisiting this topic of discussion which goes as far back as the film itself.
I'm 48 years old and saw the film for the first time at 12. It immediately became one of my favorite movies. I didn't even see it as a stage show until its second revival in the 1980's when I was in college. So many things struck me as odd: the singing of "Cool" in Act 1 didn't bother me per se, but putting both "Krupke" and especially "I Feel Pretty" in Act 2 AFTER the rumble just left a bad taste in my mouth. I understand in the plot point with Maria that she didn't know what had happened yet, but it still felt like an intrusion after the ultra-tragic Act 1 finale. One of the BEST compensations to come out of the film was to make "Pretty" a hybrid of 2 sequences: the song performed now at the bridal shop during the day BEFORE the rumble, and continue the scene later as an intimate rooftop dance by Maria alone as she waits for Tony. (The sight of Natalie Wood dancing alone in a white dress made me and probably much of the male population fall in love with her.) "Cool," of course is sublime in its shift to a low-celing auto garage as a spectacular form of musical group therapy. Tucker Smith as Ice (another strictly film creation) rocked. He should've been the Jets' leader the whole time!!
And did anyone notice the Overture is different on film too: the "Tonight" quintet on stage is always followed by "Somewhere" (in a very sad, minor-key arrangement), and then the mambo dance. The film overture replaces "Somewhere" with the lushest, most beautiful arrangement of "Maria" that I've ever heard. It makes the anticipation you're feeling happy rather than sad. I always loved it- despite everyone's criticism of the static Manhattan diorama at the beginning. -
mikwalen — 15 years ago(August 20, 2010 06:41 AM)
I love all your comments!
It bothered me to hear that Natalie had issues with Beymer, because shes one of my favorite actresses. However, I saw a photo taken behind the scenes, and they are sitting together smiling. Id like to think that was candid and not staged for the camera.
Being in Staten Island, my shows are always in danger of being checked up on by the agency Powers That Be, who are all located in NYC. As such, we pretty much toe the line as far as sticking to the script. If we were in the Midwest, we could probably get away with making little changes. I do know of a NJ group that did WSS, and it was practically a dupe of the film, placed onstage. How they got away with THAT, I dont know. I doubt they had permission, because I called MTI (the licensing agent for WSS) and asked (begged really) permission to use the boys in AMERICA, and the rep on the phone was adamant cant do it. As I stated earlier, the one area where I didnt back down was on making little modifications to some of the references in the lines, given the venue in which we were playing.
"I was NEVER in the chorus!!!!" (Vera Charles) -
StrongRex — 15 years ago(August 20, 2010 09:56 AM)
You know, when starting a topic like this, this subject should have gotten some backlash from people who think differently about it by now. I'm surprised no one has tried to stick up for the play's original script in this conversation yet. Usually, when I bring up the play's flaws to other people that I brought up here, I get plenty of people who disagree with me. I'm surprised I haven't gotten it here yet.
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Matt-145 — 15 years ago(August 21, 2010 08:06 AM)
I don't have an opinion for either way, so am not a dissenter, but do point out that one was a live musical in the 50s, and one a recorded motion picture. Different audiences in different places
In the 50s, musicals were happy, and people didn't die. There was also an interval of 10 to 20 minutes after the fight. Given that the tension would have been disipated by the gap (with drinks and socialising in the lobby), and the need for something to bring people back in to the story/musical and not to upset a 1950s audience too much, as a unexpected and shocking death would have, the placement of these cheerier songs seems eminently sensible to me.
The movie is a single story arc, and a continuous building of the tension and mood is much more sensible, and doesn't need the cheerier songs jarring against that.
It's just horses for courses. -
StrongRex — 15 years ago(August 24, 2010 06:54 AM)
Given that the tension would have been disipated by the gap (with drinks and socialising in the lobby), and the need for something to bring people back in to the story/musical and not to upset a 1950s audience too much, as a unexpected and shocking death would have, the placement of these cheerier songs seems eminently sensible to me.
If they really didn't want to have to do that to their audience, all they would have had to do was end Act One with the scene at Doc's, and move the bridal shop scene to the beginning of Act Two. The story for the stage musical would have been written much better that way because, like you said, it would have been more sensible for the mood and the more cheerful songs wouldn't have ruined that. -
movibuf1962 — 15 years ago(August 20, 2010 10:39 AM)
Great, fresh point of view- I didn't know such rules about not changing the original script were in place for any revival of a stage show- this is an education!! And you brought up one of my favorite changes in the film which I neglected to mention: making "America" a heated, witty, sophisticated song-and-dance debate between the guys AND the girls (instead of just the girls) may have been the best change in the entire film. The last time I saw the movie in a theatre, this number got rollicking applause from the audience at its conclusion.
What a showcase for Moreno and Chakiris!! -
StrongRex — 15 years ago(October 10, 2010 07:23 PM)
Actually, looking back on the movie, I take back what I said about "Gee, Officer Krupke" not being a happy song. When I saw the movie for the first time, and since then, it's made clear that the Jets' intention was to make fun of the authorities and joke around (plus the laughing at the end). So it REALLY has no place after the rumble at all.
Watch that and tell me it's not a happy situation. -
StrongRex — 15 years ago(October 12, 2010 08:35 AM)
Yes, but they still look like they're having fun in this scene. They're smiling, they're laughing at the jokes played in the song, and they're acting out the authority figures with improv. This is not a serious atmosphere, therefore it does not fit post-rumble.
That's why I took back what I said in my first post about it not being a happy song. -
StrongRex — 14 years ago(May 03, 2011 10:59 AM)
Exactly. If "Officer Krupke" were a completely dark, serious number, I wouldn't have minded if it were after the rumble. I don't know what the writers were thinking when they were injecting comedy into a song that took place after Riff had just died.