East Side, West Side, whatever

Last night we had our tickets to West Side Story.  It was one of our Broadway Across America lineup. When we knew we were moving to this city in the summer of 2003 and we knew that 2 couples who were our best friends in Mexico City were also moving here we all decided to get the season tickets to the Broadway touring shows that come to The Majestic Theater this is one of my all-time favorite venues. It is just gorgeous inside.  Scope out the link to the theater and see what I mean.  It is set up like you are in a courtyard of a gorgeous old Italian/Spanish villa and the ceiling is all curved/domed and made to look like the night sky.  And get this!  As the evening goes on you see more and more stars twinkling and little wisps of clouds moving across.  It is just one of the most spectacular places and still a very cozy and welcoming atmosphere.

Back to West Side Story, I do remember my parents had the soundtrack to the movie and played it so I knew all the songs before I ever saw the movie on t.v.  And in 9th grade we studied Romeo and Juliet along with West Side Story, together in the same book.  I still have it.  So I thought I knew a bit about the show.  And for some reason I remembered that the Sharks were the Puerto Rican gang and that the Jets were Italian.  Maybe because Richard Beymer, who played Tony opposite Natalie Wood looks Italian?

Early on in the play last night, it was apparent that they were trying to show the gangs as Latino vs Mixed Heritage But Definitely White Guys.  This was puzzling to me as I said I thought the Jets were supposed to be Italian.  How they were supposed to tell Italians from Puerto Ricans at a distance, I did not know.  But Anyhoo, then Maria asks Tony what "Tony" stands for and he says Anton, that his family is Polish.  Really?

So I did what anyone would do and got on Wikipedia and looked up West Side Story.  And Lordy, is there some back story behind getting this thing on Broadway.  Started and shelved, producer fighting with song writers, shelved again, it just went on and on and on.

But!  And here's the interesting bit.  It was originally conceived as EAST Side Story and the gangs were Italian Roman Catholic and Jewish Holocaust survivors.  It was to take place a little earlier (due to all the shelving and fighting) and Maria's family was the Jewish one and of course Tony is the Catholic Italian boy.

Maybe someone should have told them that they changed Tony's ethnicity before casting ol' Richard Beymer up there?

After many fights and shelving and carrying on this play finally got made and was nominated for a bunch of  Tonys and won most of them.  Then the movie was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and received 10.  A very successful venture both on stage and on film.

My son, the ever-so-clever-and-handsome Sparky and his girlfriend went with us last night and afterwards he commented that he had never seen the show or the movie but that he surprised himself by knowing almost all the songs.  He just didn't realize they were all from West Side Story.  That's how prevalent in our culture this music has become.  Looking it up, I could not believe how many people have remade these songs.

It has been forever since I had seen the movie and I had never seen a live performance and I was so glad I did.  And after thinking about it for a while, I have to say my favorite character is Anita.  Now she is a girl who can hold her own and kick some ass!  Hurray to Chita Rivera for playing the original Anita on Broadway and to Rita Moreno for following up with her own version in the movie.  The Anita in our traveling group last night was wonderful.  She really shone.

And with that I am now looking forward to Rock of Ages!  It will be too much fun.  If you look back at the Broadway Across America site you can see that we have a fabulous line-up for next season.  Every single one a winner.  Usually there are one or two that I don't care about.  But this next one?  Going to be killer!  And here I was debating on whether to renew our seats for next year or just go with Spurs tickets instead.

So, my question to you, dear reader is this, do you also like musical theater?  If so, what are your favorites?  If not, why the hell not?  Let me hear from you!  It brightens my day.