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All
links in a chain that lead back then to some original story of
love. Neither a borrower nor a lender be…said
Shakespeare, but he did, borrow that is, and heavily!
And transformed what he borrowed so well! Shakespeare used
Arthur Brooke's 1562 poem The Tragical History of Romeus and
Juliet as well as William Painter's Palace of Pleasure
as sources for his Romeo and Juliet. And before
Brooke, the story of Romeo and Juliet was already popular in
Renaissance times, and features in a novello by Matteo Brandello
as well as other Italian sources. All stories, especially
love stories, are as old as the hills…but when they are told in
new ways or the voice is particularly divine…then we have magic… West
Side Story, in 1957, was Broadway magic. This retelling
of Romeo and Juliet, based on a 'conception' of Jerome
Robbins, dazzled audiences with its smart, modern rendering of the
original story with glorious musical numbers and brilliant
choreography. West Side Story had impeccable genes -
a book by Arthur Laurents, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, music by
Leonard Bernstein and choreography by Jerome Robbins -- arguably
the most luminous creative team ever assembled on Broadway.
An old story of love, transposed to 1950's Hell's Kitchen and
turned it into a musical!
Laurents
and Co.'s talent lay not just in retelling a familiar story, but
in reframing it in an entirely new light: the American immigrant
dream as it was experienced by hundreds of thousands of Puerto
Rican immigrants in the 1950's. The battle between Sharks
and Jets mirrored the many turf wars of the time between Caucasian
and Latino gangs in Hell's Kitchen -- the marvelously-named swath
of land that stretches roughly from 42nd to 57th street on
Manhattan's far West Side and home to generations of poor Irish
dockworkers and Sicilian immigrants who did not at first take
kindly to their new neighbors from the Caribbean. Love is an
old story. So is clannishness. And human history is a
story, generally, about the triumph of the former over the
latter. West Side Story also worked its magic in the
1961 film directed by Robbins and Robert Wise, starring Nathalie
Wood and Rita Moreno. More
than half a century after the musical's glorious premiere,
Bernardo, Tony, Maria, and Anita are back on Broadway at the
Palace Theatre. Much has changed since 1957 in Hell's
Kitchen and in America, and these changes (yes, Barack Obama is
President!) have been astutely and ingeniously incorporated into
this new production by Laurents -- still going strong and in his
early 90s now! The Puerto Ricans now speak in Spanish
instead of English and the Latino Sharks are no longer the bad
guys -- both gangs can now claim equal credit as street
hoodlums. In this newest adaptation of this oldest of
stories, Maria in love now croons to her friends Siento Hermosa,
instead of I Feel Pretty. But the song remains the
same -- love springs eternal in a land of hope and
opportunity.
See:
West
Side Story
Tags:
theatre
broadway
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