Jerome Robbins (1918–1998)

West Side Story. Music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Compact disc. Epiphany-OviedoELCA library section 15, Adult Media. Original cast album starring Carol Lawrence as Maria and Chita Rivera as Anita.
I was introduced to this musical back in 7th grade in music class, and I fell in love with its urban intensity, Latino rhythms, and soaring love songs such as “Tonight,” and “There’s a Place for Us.” In 10th grade, I read Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and with show more my English class went to see the newly released Franco Zeffirelli film of Romeo and Juliet with Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting. Holy smokes, the stories were the same! I had known that, but suddenly I realized how well Bernstein and Sondheim translated a 16th century play into a modern, gritty urban musical drama. I was intrigued and enjoyed comparing and contrasting the two – Bernstein and Sondheim translated a rather stuffy Elizabethan tragedy into something fresh and new!
For any teen who has ever felt like an outsider, beaten down, misunderstood, or angry that his options for the future are limited by his life circumstances, West Side Story will resonate on and on. Its songs have become classics because they still speak to listeners of yearning, the need for love, the need for the promise of a future filled with peace and accomplishment. Thus it is every teen’s musical. Enjoy it with your teens, then watch the Zeffirelli version of Romeo and Juliet for a beautifully produced Renaissance cautionary tale. show less

The original version of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's musical.

These are great songs when someone else covers them, but I find the Full Broadway Treatment to be difficult to listen to. The orchestra constantly screams "This is exciting!" - which is boring.

Writing technique: A
Writing musicality: B
Performance technique: B
Performance musicality: D
Arrangements: C
Coherence/concept: A
Pacing/listenability: D
Recording/mastering: B
Cover art: B

Enjoyment: C

GPA: 2.6/4

This was a studio recording designed to bring out the opera in the musical. Kiri te Kanawa and Jose Carreras are given the singing roles of the star-crossed lovers and they sound as good as you would expect. Opera is used to the suspension of disbelief, and the cover picture showing the two singers has them looking like the worried parents of Tony and Maria rather than the kids themselves. The decision, I suppose to avoid the 'Dick van Dyke effect', to have Nina and Alexander Bernstein do show more the spoken dialogue does emphasise the separation of song from speech and is a touch infelicitous, but, hey!, Lennie wrote the thing so why can't he include the family?

The un-named orchestra and chorus do a good job under Bernstein's baton and the whole production sounds fine, but it is a bit of a mongrel. Bernstein, whatever aspirations he might have had, wrote a musical (with one of the best musical librettists around) and I think the whole thing makes more sense produced as such. Go for the original stage cast recording, or even the film, even if Natalie Wood doesn't sing a note. show less

Romeo and Juliet on the streets of New York.

A lot of it is very good, particularly when it's having fun. But I have never seen the appeal to Romeo and Juliet, and the adaptation does nothing to make those tedious characters any better. It's a love story between two people who have barely met, and who have no personality outside of their mutual obsession.

Concept: C
Story: B
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: A

Enjoyment: C plus

GPA: 2.5/4