Musings – on the editor’s mind

Last Wednesday I screwed up my courage and went against my own caution guidelines to see the new film “West Side Story” at the Lincoln Theatre. As everyone else attending did, I showed my vaccination card to get in and I kept my mask on once I finished my popcorn.

I had the entire front right section to myself. I sat in the aisle seat in the last row, my bum left leg on the arm rest of the seat in front of me. On Jan. 12, 2022, it was my first movie in about two years. I needed a night out, a night off and the pleasure of seeing a classic in the American theater and film canon approached by 21st century masters.

The original “West Side Story” is the stuff of which legends get made, a reimagining of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” as a musical set in contemporary, 1957 New York City with two teenage gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, filling the roles of the House of Montague and the House of Capulet, rival Verona families. Leonard Bernstein wrote the score, a starting out Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics with the book, or script, brought into the 20th century by Arthur Laurents. Jerome Robbins, another heavyweight, added modern dance to the mix as choreographer.

“West Side Story” was a Broadway smash and a hit on the screen in 1961. It lay untouched – how could it be improved? – until Steven Spielberg took up the challenge of directing his vision, reimagined for our time.

Tony Kushner, of “Angels in America" fame, wrote this screenplay, a signal that the story would be updated to our moment and not be a simple remake. The politically astute Kushner set the scene in the Manhattan neighborhood being knocked down for the Lincoln Center complex and associated luxury apartments. The backdrop looks like bombed out buildings. There are more brown and black faces, as whites move out and Spanish becomes common on the streets.

The tension, then, is a battle over shrinking turf with forced removal. The fight between the gangs is about survival. Maria, or Juliet, falling in love with

Tony, parallels Shakespeare, but there are no parents and the families are feral animal packs, not royal bloodlines.

Make that the Jets, the white gang, as the only white adult characters are authority figures, cops or a high school principal. These gang members, true to the script, refer to themselves as no good and juvenile delinquents. They all know they are headed to prison or an early grave.

In contrast Maria has a close relationship with her brother Bernardo, the Sharks leader, and Anita, his live in partner. The three share an apartment, income, plans and hopes. Their future will be in “America,” one of the film’s iconic numbers.

While set in 1958, this is a story looking to the future. The Sharks share the screen equally with the Jets and characters and audience alike listen to their conversations in Spanish. There are no subtitles, not in English and not in Spanish when the whites speak.

It is not our grandparents “West Side Story,” but it is our kids and grandchildren’s, reflecting their – and our - America.