The bi-lingual revival of West Side Story opened tonight. The Jets will retain many of their famous songs, but the Sharks will now be singing their same songs in their native tongue--Spanish. The NYT offered this interesting review of the show."The gangs in “West Side Story” shocked in 1957. Brooks Atkinson in The New York Times called their conduct “neurotic and savage,” with a code “rooted in ignorance and evil.” While writing the original book, Mr. Laurents said, he at times feared they would be too unsympathetic. Now he worried about the opposite problem: that those “savages” seemed too much like benign, lovable misfits... Because “West Side Story” deals with social change, previous revivals have been burdened with a comparison between what was happening onstage and what was happening on the street, and critics have complained that revivals have seemed dated."
Yet this revival is daring, offering a fresh perspective by really allowing language to distance the gangs for the first time, unsettling or perhaps touching closer to home for the audience. I'm fascinated and I can't wait to see it.
EDIT: The Times also now has this front-page review up. Enjoy!
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