• Spielberg’s (!) West Side Story 

Steven Spielberg’s intended film remake of West Side Story is apparently a go, for better or worse. While the original 1957 stage show was a modest success, it was the smash 1961 film that put the musical on the map with the second-highest grosses of the year and ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The love was not shared by its creators, who did not approve of the numerous revisions in song order and such, and it has not aged particularly well, coming off today as rather stagy despite its on-location shooting. Still, it is an historic work with a perfect cast, that amazing score and the iconic Jerome Robbins choreography, making the challenge of a remake formidable. The innovative approaches of recent musical films like Sweeney Todd and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (as well as the NBC Live musicals) do suggest a new path for musical film, and a creative look at old material is always welcome. (The stage show itself could stand some polishing if the Robbins estate would ever allow it.)

So why am I skeptical? Let us count the ways. 

• According to the Playbill website, the casting call specifies that actors vying for the three main Hispanic roles must speak Spanish (or, as the notice puts it, “MUST BE ABLE TO SPEAK SPANISH”). Why? The last Broadway revival briefly tried using Spanish dialogue and lyrics (written by a pre-Hamilton Lin-Manuel Miranda) when the Hispanic characters were interacting, but switched back once it became clear that audiences didn’t know what the heck was going on. Note to producers: the characters in US productions of The King & I don’t speak Thai, those in Fiddler don’t speak Russian or Yiddish, and those in The Lion King don’t speak animal language. (Nor, for that matter, do characters in Japanese productions of My Fair Lady speak English.) We accept as a convention that characters are speaking a different language even as we hear English voices. A musical is not where you go for realism. Excluding musical actors on the basis of their language skills also seems wrong-headed. I really hope they’re not thinking of subtitles, which would sap the energy from crucial scenes. At the very least, I hope the filmmakers keep the lyrics in the original English.
• Playbill goes on to say of the casting notice, “A background in dance is also encouraged.” Encouraged?? Would they even consider anyone who is not a dancer? Dance is the very heart and soul of this groundbreaking show – it is dance, in fact, that made it groundbreaking. It is the one indispensable element that lifts the show into another sphere. Voices can be dubbed if needed, but the suggestion that non-dancers may be hired indicates that we’re in for another MTV-style presentation where the editor is as important as the performer. That proved successful (at least commercially) in Chicago, but West Side Story? Come on.
• The dutifully PC playwright Tony Kushner is a depressing choice as book writer. Arthur Laurents’ book offers a balanced portrait that sees both sides as equally responsible for the senseless violence in their world. You can bet that Kushner will look to justify the violence on the angelic Hispanic side due to their treatment by the cruel white society. Yuk. Spielberg is bad enough on his own in this respect, but Kushner’s participation casts a particular pall over the project (his treatment of the black characters in his script for Spielberg’s Lincoln is a case in point). Kushner’s preachy tendencies were evident enough in his last musical, Caroline, or Change. He’ll have a field day with this one. Sondheim’s lyrics for the original stage show were criticized even in its day for allegedly disparaging Puerto Ricans and were modified for the film. I wonder if he’ll be put upon to revise those again. (Speaking of lyrics, I hope they retain the striking “Krup you!” as the climax of one song rather than the obvious alternative. The unexpected phrasing is actually much more effective here.)
• I had hoped for an NBC Live version, where the singing and especially dancing would be happening in real time. Those productions have been variable, but the best of them (which includes the non-NBC Grease) combine the excitement of a live production with the advantages of close-ups, huge sets, interesting camerawork and other film techniques. It would also force the producers to prioritize singing and dancing as opposed to language skills or good looks. A standard filmed version would need to be pretty special to reach those heights. The fact that this will be Spielberg’s first musical in his long career is not encouraging, though presumably he’ll have plenty of talent at hand to help out.

A new film version of West Side Story is an event for any musical theater fan, and while this is not the creative team I would have picked, I’m ready for anything. Let’s see what they can do with it.