Sixty years after its theatrical release, Steven Spielberg dares to remake the most successful musical of all time with a new version that opens in December.
Inigo Dominguez, author of the book 'interocular mascaras -a kind of wild street guide to Madrid in the 80s- says that musicals caused an avalanche of urban tribes that recreated or imitated, in some way, the gangs that appeared on movie screens.
Thus, some of those who in the 60s saw how the gang members of the bad streets of New York were spending it in 'West Side Story' formed their own gangs; The same thing happened with the rockers that emerged from the hand of 'Grease' (1978) and, although it is not strictly a musical, 'Quadrophenia' (1979) was the architect of the British revival and saw the birth of its archenemies, the elegant and refined ' mod'.
The musical comedy lived its splendor in the 40s when some 70 titles were released a year, but Hollywood has never abandoned the genre and has continued to accompany us since then with more or less frequency. 2021 seems subscribed to musicals. 'In a New York Neighborhood', based on a triumphant Broadway performance, premiered last summer and has been defined as "the perfect post-pandemic musical, an ideal film to leave behind what has been suffered during the last 15 months."
'Annette', Leos Carax's latest invention, is also a musical. Although not one to use or that is governed by classic rules. Apart from the songs composed by the art-rock group Sparks and the laughs, few, provoked by its portly protagonist Adam Driver, it develops a rather terrible and stormy fable that seems more like a Greek tragedy than the typical product of entertainment for all. the public ones.
The animated film 'Alive', 'Dear Evan Hansen' and 'Everybody's Talking About Jamie' complete the 2021 musical offer. ', 'The great showman'-, which have burst movie theaters in recent seasons.
None will be able to compete with the aura of the most indelible musical in history. Steven Spielberg -who else- has been commissioned to undertake the daunting task of directing a new version of 'West Side Story', which will hit theaters on December 10. Initially, the world premiere had been set for December 18, 2020. The pandemic ruined the deadlines that '20th Century Fox' had established, forcing its premiere to be postponed for an entire year.
When they finished filming, Spielberg himself was in charge of writing an emotional letter of thanks. "It's 12:10 a.m. on September 28, 2019, at Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yards in the great city of New York, and we've just wrapped up shooting our version of 'West Side Story.' This has been an uneventful ride. precedents: a joyful, super-moving, and infinitely surprising encounter with the story and score of one of the world's greatest musicals.
My cast and crew of hundreds of brilliant, talented, fiercely committed, generous, and seemingly inexhaustible people have given what they had (€) My team and I have been following in the footsteps of four giants: Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents, Jerome Robbins, and Stephen Sondheim."
Bernstein's wand
The figure of Leonard Bernstein is key. Without him, none of this would have happened. Bernstein, who has already passed the magic digit of one hundred years, achieved the greatest artistic recognition of him as a conductor. Throughout a very long career, he conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, composed the impressive soundtrack for Elia Kazan's 'The Law of Silence', directed several operas, premiered the peculiar theater piece 'Mass' and since 1970 he was conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra many times.
But it was the Broadway musicals of the 40s and 50s -and, above all, 'West Side Story'- with which this great North American maestro ended up shining thanks to his infallible commercial nose. He won over the public with his versatility: he mixed jazz, and Latin rhythms and was not averse to romantic sounds and accessible rhythms. Immortal themes show a Bernstein unleashed as if wanting to show the catchiest and most pop side of him to the listeners.
The songs that pit the Sharks against the Jets have easily passed the test of time and continue to sound as successful as in their first film version, directed in 1961 by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. The vibrant choreographies, the original idea of setting the classic story of Romeo and Juliet in the New York gang environment, the racial background, the debate on emigration, and the disappointment of the American dream.
