Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Things I didn’t know about West Side Story

The play created a new way of telling a story through dance

West Side Story: "Quiet Tony, my parents are sleeping... TO-NIIIIGHT, TONIGHT..."
West Side Story: "Quiet Tony, my parents are sleeping... TO-NIIIIGHT, TONIGHT..."

During an audience Q&A at the Chicago International Film Festival, Robert Wise was asked why he chose to open both West Side Story and The Sound of Music with tapering views from above. “Because I felt like it,” the director snapped. Truth be told, both were pre-sold director-proof properties that came with a built-in audience.

West Side Story (1961)

Sponsored
Sponsored

To those who proclaim it “one of the greatest musicals ever made!” please allow me to direct your attention to Lubitsch in the ‘30s and the films produced twenty years later by MGM’s Arthur Freed Unit. That said, it takes ten fingers and a few toes to count the number of times I’ve seen it, because unlike other classics, West Side Story was always there. Name the gauge and format and I was there: Technicolor, Panavision, Super Panavision-70, pan-and-scan CBS, 35mm, 16mm ‘Scope, VHS, DVD — and TO-NIIIIGHT, TONIGHT a blu-ray added another toe to the tally. Though the film is frozen in time, revival screenings of the enduring, criticism-defying rethink of Romeo and Juliet continue to draw new generations of admirers. Come for the music and dance, but pay close attention to the collaborative contributions of these three: visual consultant and credits designer Saul Bass, style-setting production designer Boris Leven, and the depth-defying, hard-edged cinematography of Daniel Fapp.

Let’s begin with two or three things I didn’t know about West Side Story. This was the late Stephen Sondheim’s first show, and it was Oscar Hammerstein who ultimately convinced him to write the lyrics. James Dean was playwright Arthur Laurents’ first choice to play Tony, before his untimely death put an end to that dream. Richard Beymer brought an unbefitting Wally Cleaver-likeability to a former gang leader lured out of retirement for one last rumble. Ditto Natalie Wood and her floating accent. (“How many bullets are there, Chino? Enough for Ju? And Ju?”) There was no way Hollywood was going to buckle under to miscegenation by green-lighting an on-screen kiss between a white boy and a Puerto Rican girl.

The directorial division of power had always been clear: Broadway choreographer Jerome Robbins handled the dance numbers while Wise oversaw the dramatic interludes. Wise wisely resisted close-ups, framing from a distance to take full advantage of both interior and exterior locations. Robbins stepped up to the plate: the musical passages were the first to go before the camera. But the inexperienced director immediately began going over budget and behind schedule, and was eventually relieved of his command. Happily, seeing as how Robbins was one of the play’s founding fathers, Wise graciously agreed to share his directorial credit.

The play created a new way of telling a story through dance, and was the first to cash in on the then headline-grabbing social phenomenon known as juvenile delinquency. There’s nary a parent in sight; instead, Lieutenant Schrank (Simon Oakland) and “Doc” (Ned Glass) are on board as the film’s major adult role models. The use of exterior space to bring a musical closer in touch with the realities of life was practically unheard of in 1961. The balcony scene was restaged on a tenement fire escape with every brick and hinge lit and designed to perfection. The use of Technicolor is jaw-dropping, but even the lush palette can’t smooth over some of the film’s glaring shortcomings. Was the same genius who decided to print the color gels into the negative of South Pacific responsible for the glaucoma-haze that separates the lovers’ introduction during the Dance at the Gym number? Spielberg reasoned the best way to make a character stand out in a three-hour black-and-white movie was to colorize a dress. Wise foolishly tried a similar trick when isolating Tony and Maria inside a Vaseline cocoon. It’s a marriage made in heaven!

I laugh every time I hear Maria’s request that Tony lower his voice so as not to wake her parents followed by the duo belting out a chorus of “Tonight.” As for the gang members, these are some of the cleanest punks this side of Walter Hill’s The Warriors. Bernardo’s (George Chakiris) hair-pile is a gravity-braving marvel. And when it comes to couture, the Sharks’ violet shirts and skinny black ties far outclass the Jets’ Century 21 sport coats. As repugnant as the implied gang-rape of Anita (Rita Moreno) is, I always stop to wonder why Tony, who stands directly beneath Doc’s store, didn’t hear a commotion. Moreno returns in the remake as Doc’s widow. And I’ll bust like a hot water pipe if there’s not a framed photograph of Ned Glass anywhere in view.

On a personal note, I was seven when my Aunt Fay took me to a matinee performance at the 400 Theatre. The multicolored glass panes on Maria’s bedroom doors made quite an impression. Do you hear that? It’s the sound of my father in heaven still finding great amusement at the possibility.

Though I prefer the hint of nuclear annihilation Saul Bass brought to Preminger’s World War II drama In Harm’s Way, West Side Story’s opening and closing credits are his most ambitious. Opening night audiences were said to gasp at the abstract vertical lines and dashes that slowly brought the outline of the city into view. And it ain’t over until the credits roll. Every hand-etched line of graffiti that passes before the sinuously slinking lens is a story unto itself. If you must view Spielberg’s imitation, I implore that you do so in light of the original.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Jayson Napolitano’s Scarlet Moon releases third Halloween album

Latest effort has the most local vibe
West Side Story: "Quiet Tony, my parents are sleeping... TO-NIIIIGHT, TONIGHT..."
West Side Story: "Quiet Tony, my parents are sleeping... TO-NIIIIGHT, TONIGHT..."

During an audience Q&A at the Chicago International Film Festival, Robert Wise was asked why he chose to open both West Side Story and The Sound of Music with tapering views from above. “Because I felt like it,” the director snapped. Truth be told, both were pre-sold director-proof properties that came with a built-in audience.

West Side Story (1961)

Sponsored
Sponsored

To those who proclaim it “one of the greatest musicals ever made!” please allow me to direct your attention to Lubitsch in the ‘30s and the films produced twenty years later by MGM’s Arthur Freed Unit. That said, it takes ten fingers and a few toes to count the number of times I’ve seen it, because unlike other classics, West Side Story was always there. Name the gauge and format and I was there: Technicolor, Panavision, Super Panavision-70, pan-and-scan CBS, 35mm, 16mm ‘Scope, VHS, DVD — and TO-NIIIIGHT, TONIGHT a blu-ray added another toe to the tally. Though the film is frozen in time, revival screenings of the enduring, criticism-defying rethink of Romeo and Juliet continue to draw new generations of admirers. Come for the music and dance, but pay close attention to the collaborative contributions of these three: visual consultant and credits designer Saul Bass, style-setting production designer Boris Leven, and the depth-defying, hard-edged cinematography of Daniel Fapp.

Let’s begin with two or three things I didn’t know about West Side Story. This was the late Stephen Sondheim’s first show, and it was Oscar Hammerstein who ultimately convinced him to write the lyrics. James Dean was playwright Arthur Laurents’ first choice to play Tony, before his untimely death put an end to that dream. Richard Beymer brought an unbefitting Wally Cleaver-likeability to a former gang leader lured out of retirement for one last rumble. Ditto Natalie Wood and her floating accent. (“How many bullets are there, Chino? Enough for Ju? And Ju?”) There was no way Hollywood was going to buckle under to miscegenation by green-lighting an on-screen kiss between a white boy and a Puerto Rican girl.

The directorial division of power had always been clear: Broadway choreographer Jerome Robbins handled the dance numbers while Wise oversaw the dramatic interludes. Wise wisely resisted close-ups, framing from a distance to take full advantage of both interior and exterior locations. Robbins stepped up to the plate: the musical passages were the first to go before the camera. But the inexperienced director immediately began going over budget and behind schedule, and was eventually relieved of his command. Happily, seeing as how Robbins was one of the play’s founding fathers, Wise graciously agreed to share his directorial credit.

The play created a new way of telling a story through dance, and was the first to cash in on the then headline-grabbing social phenomenon known as juvenile delinquency. There’s nary a parent in sight; instead, Lieutenant Schrank (Simon Oakland) and “Doc” (Ned Glass) are on board as the film’s major adult role models. The use of exterior space to bring a musical closer in touch with the realities of life was practically unheard of in 1961. The balcony scene was restaged on a tenement fire escape with every brick and hinge lit and designed to perfection. The use of Technicolor is jaw-dropping, but even the lush palette can’t smooth over some of the film’s glaring shortcomings. Was the same genius who decided to print the color gels into the negative of South Pacific responsible for the glaucoma-haze that separates the lovers’ introduction during the Dance at the Gym number? Spielberg reasoned the best way to make a character stand out in a three-hour black-and-white movie was to colorize a dress. Wise foolishly tried a similar trick when isolating Tony and Maria inside a Vaseline cocoon. It’s a marriage made in heaven!

I laugh every time I hear Maria’s request that Tony lower his voice so as not to wake her parents followed by the duo belting out a chorus of “Tonight.” As for the gang members, these are some of the cleanest punks this side of Walter Hill’s The Warriors. Bernardo’s (George Chakiris) hair-pile is a gravity-braving marvel. And when it comes to couture, the Sharks’ violet shirts and skinny black ties far outclass the Jets’ Century 21 sport coats. As repugnant as the implied gang-rape of Anita (Rita Moreno) is, I always stop to wonder why Tony, who stands directly beneath Doc’s store, didn’t hear a commotion. Moreno returns in the remake as Doc’s widow. And I’ll bust like a hot water pipe if there’s not a framed photograph of Ned Glass anywhere in view.

On a personal note, I was seven when my Aunt Fay took me to a matinee performance at the 400 Theatre. The multicolored glass panes on Maria’s bedroom doors made quite an impression. Do you hear that? It’s the sound of my father in heaven still finding great amusement at the possibility.

Though I prefer the hint of nuclear annihilation Saul Bass brought to Preminger’s World War II drama In Harm’s Way, West Side Story’s opening and closing credits are his most ambitious. Opening night audiences were said to gasp at the abstract vertical lines and dashes that slowly brought the outline of the city into view. And it ain’t over until the credits roll. Every hand-etched line of graffiti that passes before the sinuously slinking lens is a story unto itself. If you must view Spielberg’s imitation, I implore that you do so in light of the original.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Temperature inversions bring smoggy weather, "ankle biters" still biting

Near-new moon will lead to a dark Halloween
Next Article

Tijuana sewage infects air in South Bay

By September, Imperial Beach’s beach closure broke 1000 consecutive days
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader