West Side Story
****
One of our all time favored Broadway musicals as well as the subsequent motion picture was West Side Story. It first hit the Broadway stage in 1957, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins based on a book by Arthur Laurents and inspired by William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The music is by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. In 1961 there was the first film adaptation staring Natalie Wood, which we saw as a newly engaged couple.

There were numerous revivals on the Broadway stage as well as by many touring companies and now there is a new motion picture that had a $100,000,000 budget for this great musical production directed now by Steven Spielberg, starring Rachel Zegler as Maria and Ansel Elgort as Tony.

The storyline highlights the turf battle between the whites and the Puerto Ricans on the streets of Manhattan on the Upper West Side. It features interracial love, gang violence, and a lot more weaved into a fantastic memorable music and dance production. The film not only showed the disrespect that various ethnic groups had for each other but also showed the insensitivity of the police at that time.

While this was an excellent film, we do feel that some of the changes made did not serve to enhance the production. For example, the classic scene which took place in a gymnasium where the two groups were in conflict, which had lots of dancing seemed less ebullient than the original.The scene where the Puerto Rican girls were dancing and singing the praises of America with counterpoint by the Puerto Rican boys yearning for their former home was in memory from the original film, a perfect blend of choreography, color and longing contained on a rooftop setting. In this version, the whole number is opened up, taking place on the streets of Manhattan with a growing number of onlookers joining the dance. Somehow, it felt diluted in its new form and lost the punch of the original. Also, some of the emotional scenes were not as intense as we recall from the original. Nevertheless, we would strongly recommend this classic musical experience. The music, the lyrics, the dancing and the story can’t fail to grab you and keep you engaged. West Side Story continues to be magnificent, beautiful, painful and important.

Rita Moreno – Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It
****

The title of this movie is the iconic actress’ self-proclaimed model. This film traces the famed actress from her humble beginnings to the gigantic success that she was on Broadway and Hollywood. She initially accepted the stereotypic roles as a Puerto Rican woman who could dance and sing and when she wanted to do so, could have a Spanish accent or not. This documentary film records her life going back to when she was a co-star with Marlon Brando and they were also lovers. It traces other relationships including her long marriage to a Jewish man who was not in show business and her raising of her one daughter. There are comments by people who knew her and worked with her such as Lin-Manuel Miranda, Morgan Freeman, Whoopi Goldberg, Eva Longoria, Norman Lear, Gloria Estefan, and many other well-known names. The movie was directed by Mariem Pérez Riera. The release of this documentary coincides with Steven Spielberg’s new film, which is a remake of the 1957 famed musical West Side Story in which Ms. Moreno had a major role. She has a strong part in the new West Side Story as well. This documentary is a loving and carefully curated depiction of Rita Moreno’s life story.
Certainly, her warmth and her talent burst forth in this most enjoyable film. We especially appreciate the vibrant personality that she has now as an octogenarian and it is clear that she is one of great talents of our time.