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You are here: Home / TV & Movies / Movies / Late Night Open Thread: West Side Story

Late Night Open Thread: West Side Story

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Apparently the new West Side Story didn’t do well in theatres for its opening weekend. Which is a pity, and also sadly predictable, since it was very much Boomer bait and opened just as Omicron was becoming A Thing. I always intended to stream it, because the Spousal Unit is very much *not* a fan of the original, but I grew up across the river and approximately at the same time as the setting, and (I Like to Be in) America was probably the first ‘real’ song I memorized on purpose…

There’s people say Captain Obvious was making a joke here, but how will we ever know?

Reader Interactions

79Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    I was thinking of going to see it this weekend. Seems fairly low-risk; locally, we’re highly vaxxed, generally mask-compliant, and have a fairly low case rate.

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    No interest in watching. Can barely stomach sitting through the first film without a barf bag handy. Good soundtrack, though.

    Put a link here the other day about this new version being banned in countries across the Arabian peninsula because it includes a transgender character.

  3. 3.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    I used to think there was a Titanic musical where one of the songs went something along the lines of “We’re going to America, we’re going to America!” with the cast dancing along the deck to the tune. It was only recently that I figured out I was misremembering “(I Want To Live In) America” from West Side Story…

    Anywho, I hope Spielberg doesn’t go down the Ridley Scott route of blaming “millennials” and their phones for West Side Story doing poorly. Lost so much respect for Scott when he said something so ridiculous when The Last Duel bombed

  7. 7.

    Comrade Colette

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):  No interest in watching. Can barely stomach sitting through the first film without a barf bag handy. Good soundtrack, though.

    I’m with you. I’ve never made it through the movie. I did see a staged version 20+ years ago that was pretty good, though.

    In other news, I do not have Covid. Yay for me. I do still have a crappy cold, though. Anybody know if VeniceRiley’s wife got her test results?

  8. 8.

    Winston

    I once met a girl named Maria, and suddenly I found she was married to a friend of mine and that was that and she was a blond from Cincinnati. Later, Sharks and Jets were professional Hockey teams and Football teams on opposite coasts. I loved West Side Story when I was 14 though. Even read the script at the library. The original is all I ever want it to be

    ETA: 60 years ago.

  9. 9.

    gbear

    I have a soft spot for West Side Story. I saw a traveling version of the Broadway cast perform it at a classic old St. Paul theater in the 60’s. Unfortunately I can’t remember who any of the star performers were. The other Broadway cast performance that I saw back then was The Sound of Music with Mary Martin in the starring role.

    Haven’t seen the WSS remake, but the stereotypes of the original have not aged well at all.

  14. 14.

    Winston

    @Viva BrisVegas: I would think you could sue Harriet Beecher Stowe anytime someone checks out Uncle Tom’s Cabin at the library

    ETA or Barnes and Noble anytime someone buys Mandingo.

  15. 15.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @NotMax:

    Heh, exactly

    @Chetan Murthy:

    A good guess, but I don’t think that was it. It was definitely inspired by WSS. I think it actually went in my head more like,”We’re coming to America, we’re coming to America”.

    I must have picked it up somewhere

    @Comrade Colette:

    Glad you don’t have COVID : )

  18. 18.

    Chetan Murthy

    Y’know, I’m so old, I remember when the chattering classes’ opinion of WSS was that it was a reheated Romeo and Juliet, nowhere near the …. gravitas (?) of the original.  I’ve never seen it, but I have a CD of the music, and I always liked the songs.  But hey, I thought Miss Saigon was nice, even though I hear that’s a reheated Madame Butterfly.

  21. 21.

    Chetan Murthy

    @NotMax:  @Winston:  Agreed about the provenance of the material. I guess I wasn’t clear.  What I meant was, that back in the 80s, the ….. common wisdom in the circles I traveled, was that it was a poor knockoff, not Bernstein’s best work, etc, etc.  I mean, I’ve never watched anything but bits, so I can’t really say.  And I’m no drama critic.  But OTOH, “Officer Krumke” is a great number.

  22. 22.

    Emerald

    As this is an open thread, I will take the opportunity to recommend a fabulous Twitter account: Shoebills Every Hour.

    This is an account that posts pictures of Shoebill cranes as often as they can. Trust me, you need these pics in your Twitter stream. Shoebill cranes may not look real, but I have seen on in person at the San Diego Safari Park. They are real!

    And you will learn from the pics of them that they not only stand and glower hatefully at everyone, but they also fly and raise adorable little shoebill chicks. They are actual birds!

    Trust me, you need Shoebills in your lives! Follow Shoebills Every Hour!

    Thank you for your time!

  27. 27.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It was a certain moment.  I remember getting the original Chess CDs, and then when the American version came out on Broadway, we all drove down from Ithaca (grad school) to see it.  And were all bitterly disappointed, b/c it didn’t live up to the CD.  Ha!  It was a certain moment.

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    @Chetan Murthy

    Speaking of Sweet Charity….

    :)

    Trivia: Sammy’s first TV appearance, IIRC in 1948, was on Toast of the Town (the forerunner of The Ed Sullivan Show) in a dancing spot. During his appearance the video went out so all the audience watching on the tube received was the music and sound of him tap dancing.

  33. 33.

    Winston

    @Nicole: Thanks for posting that. Reminds me the most famous song from WSS was “There’s a place for us”, made even more famous by Barbara Streisand.

  34. 34.

    Emerald

    It occurs to me that my touting of Shoebills Every Hour might look as though it were my account, and I would be trolling for followers.

    Not so!

    I simply stumbled upon the account, and enjoy it so much that I thought I would spread the word.

    Shoebill cranes. They are a wonder.

  36. 36.

    oldster

    @Major Major Major Major:

    The spread of Omicron at Chetan Murthy’s alma mater is terrifying.

    They surveillance test 5k to 6k students every day and have done since the start of the pandemic. Means they see every student twice a week.

    In October and early November, new cases per day ranged between 5 and zero. It was almost sterile there.

    Then they let the kids go home for Thanksgiving, and — huge mistake — let them come back again.

    On Dec 6 there were 12 new cases. Two days later, 50 new cases. One week later 240 cases. A 20-fold jump in one week.

    For the last few days it has been holding in the mid 200s, so slowing the rate.

    But, remember, this is a population that is over 97% vaccinated.

    And Omicron rippped through there like a freight train.

    The same thing is happening all around the country, but they don’t have the surveillance testing in place to see it yet.

    We are in for a huge wave.

  39. 39.

    Winston

    @oldster: Yeah. I have been monitoring this and it is coming. Welcome to the third year of isolation. I hope I don’t get bored to death

    OTOH the price of booze hasn’t gone up. So there’s that.

  40. 40.

    sab

    @Winston: I hate Streisand’s version. She has a huge voice she is proud of, so everything she sings drags out forever while she proves how long she can hold a note. ” Somewhere” in West Side Story is a song, but elsewhere in the show it is also a dance number. It has a strong rhythm and beat, and Streisand loses all of that.

  41. 41.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    My first exposure to West Side Story was when my high school performed it; I was a percussionist in the pit orchestra off to the side. So I remember the tunes very well, but I don’t think I ever actually properly saw it performed.

  47. 47.

    Winston

    @Winston: “Somewhere” is the single greatest song from WSS, imo. It encompasses the struggle of countless immigrants looking to find a better place, free of prejudice, discrimination and persecutions and yearning to be free. Somewhere America is supposed to be. It’s too bad it isn’t and I don’t know why. What happened to “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.?

  52. 52.

    sab

    Serious musicians died in the holocaust, and therefore we can’t criticize Streisand who cant be botheredd to keep time.

    @Win

     

     

    No. It’s the music. Music is notes, rhythm, and sometimes but not always words. Music is always. Words are optional.

  53. 53.

    sab

    @sab: Words without music are just words. Can do music without words.Cant do words without music. Those are just boring drivel..

  54. 54.

    Winston

    @sab: So I guess you would take exception to Joe Cockers  interpretation of the Beatles “With a little help from my friends” ?

  60. 60.

    Brachiator

    Apparently the new West Side Story didn’t do well in theatres for its opening weekend. Which is a pity, and also sadly predictable, since it was very much Boomer bait and opened just as Omicron was becoming A Thing….

    Variety has a very good piece on the poor box office performance of WSS.

    I hear good things about Spielberg’s direction, which is a wonder in itself since I didn’t think he had the chops to direct a musical. This alone makes me curious to see the film.

    But the larger issue is that people have become comfortable in making home streaming their first choice for movies, and this is killing an already weak box office. No matter what you read in the past about box office bonanzas, especially with respect to Marvel superhero movies, ticket sales have been on the decline for decades. Inflation and higher price 3D and IMAX screenings helped distort the reality of the domestic box office .

    It also might have helped if WSS had big stars, maybe Selena Gomez, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Hugh Jackman even. Can Robert Downey Jr sing?

    Also, musicals and westerns are no longer a big part of popular culture, and even though I like some of the songs in WSS, having been introduced to the music in elementary school, the movie itself was no big deal to me.

    On the other hand,

    Jeez, tough crowd. I have to wonder what they would’ve thought of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo+Juliet….

    I loves me some Romeo and Juliet, including the whacked out Baz Luhrmann version. Leo and Claire were fine.

    If it is just a good movie I think that WSS will do well once it hits the streaming service. And maybe good teachers can use it as a gateway into Shakespeare.

  61. 61.

    Elizabelle

    @moonbat:

    If only Snake Pliskin could sing.

    Laughing.

    Just saw that movie on a big screen this fall.  It was fun.  Some of it was dated; some of it was prescient.

  62. 62.

    Brachiator

    @moonbat:

    If only Snake Pliskin could sing.

    I would watch the hell out of a West Side Story/Escape From New York mashup.

    I can’t remember if Kurt Russell did any Disney musicals.

  63. 63.

    evodevo

    @NotMax:  Mr. Evodevo agrees heartily…his freshman roommate at college played the LP incessantly, and he hates the musical to this day lol – at the first notes of “America” or “Maria” he grabs for the remote with lightning speed..

  64. 64.

    Mo MacArbie

    Right, so Streisand needs to pull her pants up, or something.

    If you want to say what music is, you’re wrong. It’s more than that. You don’t have to like it all, but music is, like, really big. Bigger than anyone’s ability to say what it is.

  68. 68.

    Ohio Mom

    I might be the outlier here, I have fond memories of West Side Story. My family had the album and my summer camp put it on one year (I was Anybodys).

    Would I like to see a new version of it, I couldn’t say, my thought process doesn’t get past Oh no, not going to the movies during Covid/Omicron.

  69. 69.

    debbie

    @sab:

    Barb and I saw the same physical therapist many years ago. She is an extremely needy woman. Either she was trying to do her version of Billie Holiday or she was just trolling for attention.

  71. 71.

    UncleEbeneezer

    I’ll be interested to see the new WSS.  The original is one of my fave musicals of all time and I remember falling in love with the tunes and choreography while watching it with my New Yorker mom as a kid (in the 80’s.). I still regularly watch clips of Cool and America because I think the dancing is amazing.  It’s cheesy at times, but I don’t care, it’s still great.  I’ll be curious to see what the new version is like.  I hope they didn’t change the music too much. Incidentally I just yesterday stumbled upon an album of WSS songs by one of my favorite jazz artists, NY bassist Ben Allison.  It has some very interesting spins on the tunes.

  73. 73.

    Anne Laurie

    @raven: How could he leave out “The Wanderers”??

    Guess I should try watching that one, someday.  True story, the Ducky Boys — or so it was rumored — were the Irish neighborhood gang when I was growing up in the Bronx (University Heights).  But the Italian gang called themselves the Golden Ginnies (their spelling, not mine; the graffiti was *everywhere*).   I left in the early part of the 1970s, so I can’t tell you how the movie was received on its ‘home turf’…

  76. 76.

    opiejeanne

    @sab: What? Is that a whole thought? A whole sentence?

    Do you understand what rubato is? Do you object to its use by composers like Ravel? Mozart? Beethoven?

    Or are you like Leopold Mozart and insist on strict time-keeping?

  78. 78.

    JDM

    Yeah, no way that original had any political messaging.  Nothing like a sarcastically delivered song lyric saying “if you are white in America”.

  79. 79.

    columbusqueen

    @UncsleEbeneezer: Saw it Tuesday night, & thought it was pretty damn fantastic.  It addresses the flaws of the original (particularly the casting of the 2 leads), & gives everything more texture.

    Also, Mike Faist (who’s beyond great as Riff) is from Gahanna, next door to my hometown of New Albany. Go Lions!

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