"West Side Story" Thoughts

This past Friday evening we watched the great movie "West Side Story" on TCM.  Now I happen to love "West Side Story". I have seen the movie countless times and have seen at least one professional stage production of this classic and, dare I say, groundbreaking American musical.  However, when watching it the other night, I found that it might be, well, I hesitate to use the word "dated", but a person under the age of thirty who is seeing this for the first time in 2018 might not take to it quite like theater audiences did in 1957 and movie audiences did in 1961.

You all know the story, but if you don't its original source material is William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", which was written and first staged in England back in 1597.  The setting is the west side of New York City and it involves juvenile gangs and delinquency, specifically turf warfare between white American kids (the Jets) and Puerto Rican kids (the Sharks) who have emigrated to America.  Trouble is always percolating between the rival Sharks and Jets, but it comes to a head when Tony, the former leader of the Jets who has left the gang to move onto adult things, falls in love with Maria, the younger sister of Sharks leader, Bernardo.  Trouble and tragedy ensue and are played out to the terrific score of Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein and fabulous choreography throughout.

The themes are timeless, but when you think of hard ass gang bangers here in 2018, you don't think of Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, George Chakiris and the rest of the cast doing ballet type movements and rousing dance numbers on the streets and rooftops of New York City.

 Beymer with Natalie Wood

Oscar winner Chakiris (center)

 Rita Moreno, another Oscar winner

 Tamblyn (L) and the Jets

When you're a Jet,

You're a Jet all the way....

What I am leading up to here (finally) is the fact that serious discussions are taking place in Hollywood to do a re-make of "West Side Story". Now I know that this will bring out screams and anguish along the lines of "How could they possibly think that remaking this Oscar winning classic is a good idea?  Why this verges on sacrilege!!!"

I have written on the subject of remakes before, and while I agree that some things just shouldn't be done ("Casablanca", for example), if a remake is done well and is good, and if it has something new to say or a different spin to put on a work, why not?  The names associated with this proposed remake of "West Side Story" are director Stephen Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner.  These are heavy hitters, folks, and their association with the project pretty much guarantees that this will not be a schlocky, fly-by-night production.  No one is talking about changing any of these wonderful songs, either, so I, for one, will look forward to seeing how Spielberg and Kushner will present this classic story.