West Side Story, directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, is a musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set in New York City. Two rival gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, are in a constant battle for respect and territory during the whole musical. When someone sings, it usually gives us a'heads up' that either a character is undergoing development or that the plot is going to be advanced. There are a couple songs that serve as pure entertainment, but almost all songs have some significance. Interestingly enough, the actors that most people believe to sound the best don't sing their own parts. On another note, the stereotypes that are evident in this movie are those that teenagers are usually identified with. Also, the Sharks symbolize what seems to be all Puerto Ricans in New York while the Jets symbolize all the whites.
West Side Story is a typical musical due to the fact that the characters randomly burst into song and dance. Leonard Bernstein’s score for the musical has been extremely popular. Some of the songs include “Something’s Coming”, “Maria”, “America”, “Tonight”, “Gee, Officer Krupke”, “I Feel Pretty”, “One Hand, One Heart” and “Cool”. ;Jet Song;, thefirst song in the production, shows character development as it describes to us who the Jets are.Furthermore, ;Tonight; is a good example of a song that advances the plot because Tony visits Maria on the fire escape of her apartment and they pledge their love to each other. Before this, ;Maria; is sung by Tony to show us that he fell in love atfirst sight.After Maria;s brother is murdered, Maria and Tony sing, envisioning a place where they can be free from prejudice (;Somewhere;).This forebodes to the audience that they might run away some day.
Several actors, including the lead actors, had dubbed lines in the movie. Richard Beymer’s singing voice was dubbed by Jimmy Bryant. Rita Moreno’s singing voi…
West Side Story
West Side Story was one of the best plays that Kean has put on that I have seen.This play just happens to be one of my favorite movies that I have watched over and over again.I basically memerized all the scenes and songs.But of coarse the play has to be shorter then the movie, so certain things had to be cut out and changed a little bit.For example when the song "America" is sung in the movie, the guys and girls are going against each other, but in the play it was just girls singing to each other.
I think the people chosen for the play perfectly fit their characters.The only person I thought that needed a little bit more work on his acting was the guy who played "Tony", Shayne Austin.Shayne has a great singing voice, but his acting seemed a tad bit rusty if you ask me.Over all everyone else seemed to be perfect for his or her parts.
The play was very upbeat and exciting.There were times you laughed and times you cried.You always wanted to know what was going to happen next.Was there going to be a fight?Was someone going to die?
Since the stage is so small not that many props could be used.The props that they did have were good.The fence symbolizied the playground, sowing machine showed the shop Maria worked in, the bed symbolized Maria's room, and the register showed the soda shop.All very good considering the size of the stage.
Overall I think that this performance was extremely successful.It got the point across that it doesn't matter what race you are.You should put your differences aside and get to know people.And that's exactly how I feel about life.That everyone should get to know people before they judge them.People need to stop stereo typing others. For example: your Spanish so all you eat is rice and beans, your black so you rob people, and your white so you think your better then everyone else of a different race.All
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