A few hours ago I opened my inbox to find an questionnaire inquiring, "Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future of America?" As it happened, I had a classical radio station on in the background--I often listen to KUSC on iTunes--and found myself listening to Leonard Bernstein's "Symphonic Dances from West Side Story."
You can see what's coming, can't you?
"West Side Story," I found when I checked on Wikipedia, opened on Broadway in 1957. The music is simply magnificent--an adaptation of classical instruments and methods to distinctively American rhythms and themes. The story, based on "Romeo and Juliet," is, likewise, magnificent, the tragedy of a young Caucasian or Anglo who falls in love with a Puerto Rican girl in an ethnically charged and divided New York City neighborhood. "West Side Story" displayed the highest aspirations. In its music, story, and choreography, it sought to claim the high classical tradition of Europe for the United States. It sought to adapt the classical vocabulary to the New York City streets, celebrating American life even as it criticized racial divides. It sought to inspire. It sought to uplift.
That was Broadway, in, again 1957.
Broadway today? "The Book of Mormon."
I confess at the outset that I have yet to see the show. Apparently it's very, very funny--I'll grant that. But as best I can tell the comedy all arises from mockery, which is, aside from bathroom humor, perhaps the lowest form of humor. The music? I've listened. I suppose it has a certain energy--even, maybe, a certain puerile sense of fun. But high aspirations? Real beauty? Uplift? Inspiration? Not even close. And whereas you can play "West Side Story" with your children in the room, hoping that it might begin to interest them in music, no careful parent would consider playing "The Book of Mormon" in the presence of little kids. Just take a look at the sound track on iTunes. No fewer than three of the tracks are marked "Explicit."
I still want to be optimistic about the future of America, obviously--on balance, for that matter, I am optimistic. But there's simply no way around it. To an extent that would have astonished Americans of just a generation or two ago, our popular culture has become gross and debased.
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Oct '10
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
Thanks for speaking out against this, Peter.
May '10
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
Personally, I could never get past the rumble scene in West Side Story. All those effete dancers pirouetting around, snarling unconvincingly like so many Billy Idols. It seems... incongruous.
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
Agreed.
Then again--and this will forever earn me the scorn of one Mr. Peter Robinson--I've just never seen the appeal of musicals as a genre.
Jun '10
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
Diane Ellis, Ed.
Agreed.
Then again--and this will forever earn me the scorn of one Mr. Peter Robinson--I've just never seen the appeal of musicals as a genre. · Nov 7 at 4:47pm
Amen...
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
This is not new: The musical Hair debuted on Broadway in April of 1968. It had shocking lyrics, frank depictions of drug use and sex, and full frontal nudity -- and it ran for four years and has been revived several times since.
Edited on Nov 7, 2011 at 4:52pmAug '10
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
To be fair to the South Park creators who wrote and produced The Book of Mormon, they also wickedly lampooned the disgusting, politically-correct AIDS musical Rent, in their movie Team America, World Police.
Jul '10
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
Diane Ellis, Ed.
Agreed.
Then again--and this will forever earn me the scorn of one Mr. Peter Robinson--I've just never seen the appeal of musicals as a genre. · Nov 7 at 4:47pm
10 points for Diane!
Q: How do you wreck a good story, or hide a bad one?
A: Weirdly burst into song from time to time.
The culinary equivalent of a musical is the Buffalo Wing-tip.
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
Diane Ellis, Ed.
Then again--and this will forever earn me the scorn of one Mr. Peter Robinson--I've just never seen the appeal of musicals as a genre. · Nov 7 at 4:47pm
I'd have an easier time computing this if not for the "Love, Actually" business. And yes, I do plan to rib you about this for years to come.
May '11
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
Diane Ellis, Ed.
Agreed.
Then again--and this will forever earn me the scorn of one Mr. Peter Robinson--I've just never seen the appeal of musicals as a genre. · Nov 7 at 4:47pm
Watch the 1968 movie "Oliver". Great story (Oliver Twist), great cinematography, and great music. And Clean G rated.
Aug '11
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
And yet, it inspired this "choreography wargame."
Aug '10
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
I rush to the bar to defend this. As a fifth grader , I went to see the movie ( Missouri sans B'way) and sat in the balcony smoking Marlboro . A Jet at heart, Tamblyn aside. It was all about the street to me, oblivious to the culture. Grasping at pop culture as a 5th grader - imagine that ! Great thing is that my mind rings with that music as a reminder, "Maria" is much better than anything in a long time . Most of the score as well.
Mar '11
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
Diane Ellis, Ed.
Then again--and this will forever earn me the scorn of one Mr. Peter Robinson--I've just never seen the appeal of musicals as a genre. · Nov 7 at 4:47pm
We got trouble, my friends, right here, I say, trouble right here in Rico city.
How do you solve a problem like Diane?
Oct '10
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
Diane Ellis, Ed.
Agreed.
Then again--and this will forever earn me the scorn of one Mr. Peter Robinson--I've just never seen the appeal of musicals as a genre. · Nov 7 at 4:47pm
Then let one not forget Topol as a classic, or perhaps The Greatest Little WhoreHouse in Texas ? Now they were amusing productions. OkieLahoma and Pacific were a matter of taste then and now.
The finest works appeared in the 30s, a lost art it seems. And powerfull works.
Edited on Nov 7, 2011 at 6:18pmMay '10
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
Hate to pile on, but: yes. Ballerinas having a knife fight.
Feb '11
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
Palaeologus
Diane Ellis, Ed.
Agreed.
Then again--and this will forever earn me the scorn of one Mr. Peter Robinson--I've just never seen the appeal of musicals as a genre
10 points for Diane!
Q: How do you wreck a good story, or hide a bad one?
A: Weirdly burst into song from time to time.
The culinary equivalent of a musical is the Buffalo Wing-tip.
Classical opera, through much of its history, consisted of spoken recitative interspersed with choruses, arias - characters weirdly bursting into song - and irrelevant choreographed dance. It greatly helps the critical acceptance of an operatic type work if the composer is Italian and the libretto unintelligible to most of the non-native audience. Additionally, lighter opera has long coexisted with its more ponderous grand sibling. Musicals of Bernstein's era drew on that tradition. There is room for both.
Peter is correct about gross and debased culture. Ours is Lady Gaga, sophomoric crudities passing as humor, and orchestras living off the past.
Jun '10
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
I think, if you see the musical, it's not quite as anti-Mormon-believer as it seems on the surface. Even if it portrays the missionaries as naive and misguided, they're goodhearted young men. They do their best. According to the authors, when certain inside-baseball things appear (like the dancing Starbucks cups in Hell,) they get some Mormon belly laughs out in the audience, here and there. Who else gets the joke? They believe they have some Mormon fans.
Apr '11
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
See Frank Rich's liner notes for a different take on "The Book of Mormon". I saw both plays (on Broadway last month for Book of Mormon, and at the movies when I was eight for West Side Story) and I love them both.
Jun '10
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
As a Mormon who knows little about the musical I am ambivalent: I'm certain it's filled with caricatures, but then every religion gets a dose of it. And it's obviously very funny. Life goes on.
West Side Story: yes, the rumble is bit fancy-pants. But the song "Maria" is a beautiful love ballad. And what's not to like about the young Natalie Wood? I had a crush on her back in the day.
Edited on Nov 7, 2011 at 7:59pmMay '10
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
The term "musicals" is too broad based. There are actually many sub-genres in the art form.
In the 1920s and '30s the Revue was big. It was more akin to a variety show with satirical skits intermingled with songs and dance numbers. Most of the big names wrote for these kinds of shows notably the Gershwins and Irving Berlin.
Then there was the Musical Comedy like Cole Porter's Anything Goes or Berlin's big hits, Annie Get Your Gun and Call Me Madam. These shows had a definite plot but were they light and airy.
Then there are the more serious shows that featured substantial dramatic books like Jerome Kern's Showboat, and the collaborations of Rogers and Hammerstein that began with Oklahoma and ended sixteen years later with the Sound of Music. They weren't quite opera since they didn't require constant singing. (As the late Sylvia Fine Kaye once observed about that art form, "If you don't speak Italian you think opera is about something!") But these shows dealt with serious subjects like racism, war, the rise of fascism and deadly rivalries. Oklahoma changed musicals forever and led to shows like West Side Story.
Sep '10
Re: Optimism/Pessimism Watch, Or How Does "The Book of Mormon" Stand Up to "West Side Story"?
I totally catch your drift, flownover. It's hard to relay how absolutely edgy West Side Story was for its time. Sophisticated and jazzy. Forboding. I still sing "Maria" sometimes, if I'm sure no one can hear. And "Tonight" is nothing short of an anthem: Tonight / tonight / the world is wild and bright / with suns and moons all over the place! But there's also the caustic, biting "America," one of the first hints I got of the cultural anti-Americanism that would dominate my young adulthood. Wonder if I've still got that LP ...