Life Upon the (Not So) Wicked Stage

This weekend, I watched two awesome musicals. In the afternoon on Saturday, one of my friends came over and we watched West Side Story. That evening, another buddy of mine and I went to Opera in the Outfield at Nats Park and saw Showboat.

  
West Side Story, with music by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, first appeared on Broadway in 1957. The show follows the story of Maria, a young woman who has immigrated to Manhattan with her family from Puerto Rico. Her brother, Bernardo, is the leader of a gang in the West Side of the city, called the Sharks. They have a rivalry with a gang of Americans, the Jets. One night at a dance at the gym, Maria sees an American man named Tony, and they fall in love. In the end, the two gangs have a rumble, and Tony, Bernardo, and the Jets' leader, Riff, are killed.
The plot of West Side Story is based on Romeo and Juliet, and was originally supposed to be about a Jew and a Catholic during Passover/ Easter. "East Side Story", however, was never produced because by the time Bernstein and his cohorts, Arthur Laurents and Jerome Robbins, revisited their 1947 idea, the demographics of New York had changed too much for a Jewish/anti-semitist love affair to be relevant.

Fun Facts:

• West Side Story was one of the first musicals to truly incorporate dance into main parts of the story. (Oklahoma did this 15 years earlier with the dream sequence, but to a much lesser extent.)
• In the film production, the only person of Latina descent in the cast was Rita Moreno, who played the role of Anita, Maria's friend who was dating Bernardo.
• Natalie Wood, who plays Maria in the 1961 film adaptation, wasn't actually singing in the film. Marni Nixon, who also dubbed for Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady" and Debra Kerr in "The King and I" sang the part of Maria for Wood, but was not credited for her work.

Here's the Quintet from West Side Story, which is sung right before the first rumble.

SHOW BOAT

 This musical, written by Oscar Hmmerstein II and Jerome Kern was originally produced in 1927. The show takes place over a 40 year period, starting in 1887 and ending in 1920. It follows the saga of the company of a show boat in Mississippi, the Cotton Blossom. Julie and Steve are the production's leading couple. The show starts with Julie speaking with Magnolia, Captain Andrew's daughter, who believes she has just fallen in love. It is then discovered that Julie is not actually a white woman, but that her father was white and her mother was black. Interracial marriages were illegal in Mississippi at the time, but Steve pretends he, too, is of African American descent, and the two leave the ship. Left without a leading couple, Captain Andy casts his daughter Nola (short for Magnolia), as the leading lady, and her love, Gaylord Ravenal, as her love interest in the boat's production. Eventually, Gay and Nola move to Chicago, where they have a daughter, Kim. Gay leaves Kima and Nola, leaving Nola to seek her fortune on Vaudeville's Orpheum circuit. After twenty years apart, Gay and Nola meet again and fall back in love.

Fun Facts:

• Show Boat was one of the first musical comedies to have a real plot, and was very radical for its time in that instead of being a musical revue, the show followed a story that the music and songs played a big part in telling.
• It was the VERY FIRST racially integrated musical to appear on Broadway.
• For those of us who know a lot about music theory and history, our first clue that Julie isn't white shouldn't come when it is revealed to all the other characters. The first hint we're given that she's not who she seems can be heard during her first big song, "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man". Instead of singing a note belonging to the major chord of the song, at mutliple points during the chorus, she sings a blues note, which was meant to let the audience know she wasn't actually white.

In this show, there are many racial slurs and mannerisms that are considered very offensive in today's society, but the show is still absolutely marvelous. Here's my favorite song, and one of the most famous ballads, from the musical. It's a clip from the 1936 movie of Paul Robeson singing "Ol' Man River". Enjoy!