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West Side Story

Posted on April 4, 2022April 27, 2022 by Village Vidiot

“West Side Story,” April 4, 2022 (2021), DVD.  Directed by Stephen Spielberg with a screenplay by Tony Kushner, Bronwen and I both liked and were quite moved by this remake of the Bernstein and Sondheim classic.  I grew up with the 1957 original Broadway cast recording on my parent’s faux stereo (three feet of separation on a furniture console.) The 1961 movie (which Bronwen loves) was not my cup of tea.  The theater felt more real and more raw.  But the new version is not your parents’ or grandparents’ West Side Story despite an apt shift that allowed Rita Moreno to figure significantly.  Ariana DeBose’s Oscar as the new Anita was very deserved.  The cast is excellent, the singing lovely and performed by the cast members themselves (!), the choreography is a big step up from ’61, and the context is more than just Jets and Sharks.  It’s urban renewal/removal to make way for Lincoln Center (!) made evident.  But the gangs are different.  The Sharks are older and the Jets more a late adolescent-early 20s youth gang, at least in appearance.  There is also much more menace in both groups.  Young love at first site no longer feels even remotely likely to me (although lust at first site still seems real), probably because it’s so remote and just plain unreal.  Still the story and songs are moving and painful, the music is gorgeous, and the lyrics still elicited heartfelt sing-along moments on the couch.   I probably would have annoyed a lot of people if I’d seen this in a theater.

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