Lyric Opera 2022-2023 Issue 10 - West Side Story

23 | Lyric Opera of Chicago familial, national, generational, and so on—into cultural- linguistic difference. Today, adapting Shakespeare to another setting is almost a cultural meme. Concept productions, musicalized adaptations, and reinventions of his works are commonplace. In an unusual pattern of influence, West Side Story has mapped back onto Shakespearean storytelling, with this type of division now nearly requisite in Shakespearean productions. Vocal and acting methods for performing Shakespeare are essential to actor training; in fact, speaking Shakespearean verse has been a litmus test for actors since his time. Likewise, West Side Story ’s requirement for “triple threat” performers—those who can sing, act, and dance—became the litmus test for excellence in musical theater. West Side Story was the first Broadway musical to have two dead bodies onstage at the curtain drop before intermission, making the realities of gang warfare the climactic moment. West Side Story is a “book musical,” a musical in which characters break out into song to express intense emotions, but its varied musical styles and absence of musical numbers in the last portion of the story also push on that very definition; indeed, it is the rare musical that does not end with a song and dance number. The book musical is an American invention, beginning with Oklahoma! almost fifteen years earlier, and it is West Side Story ’s film soundtrack that would take the story world- wide. The creative team—inclusive of Laurents, Robbins, Leonard Bernstein and a then-unknown Stephen Sond- heim—brought forward a new style of storytelling, not in form but in creative power. West Side Story has itself been adapted and translated to cultures and languages all over the world, and to various performance genres, from a late 1990s GAP marketing campaign to opera. One of West Side Story ’s enduring appeals is that it satisfies the modern desire for subtext. The first “Method” musical, the unexplained familial grudge from Shakespeare’s play is made explicit and based on division caused by societal status, immigration, ethnicity, and language. Although the Sharks spoke a minimal amount of Spanish in the initial production and 1961 film, the theatrical premise of linguistic division was made prominent in the 2009 Broadway revival and the 2021 film, both of which included portions entirely in Spanish without translation. Linguistic racism is just as prevalent as other forms of racism, and unfortunately West Side Story ’s continued relevance rests on its connection to today’s politics as much as those of the past. Typically applied to casting practices, the phrase “representation matters” has become ubiquitous. But not all representation advances understanding and empathy; it can be as dangerous and misinformed as it can be productive and inclusive. West Side Story reminds us that authenticity can be compatible with high theatricality, and it is this ambivalence that makes the show so moving, entertaining, and in certain moments, realistic. West Side Story ’s ethnic division and somber ending are the most authentic thing about it. The resolution that Romeo and Juliet suggests from the outset—that the lovers’ actions will “bury their parents’ strife”—is not possible when prejudice divides the two households. Unlike many musicals, plays, and other stories which come together quickly for closure, West Side Story ’s high point of authenticity is its ending, with Maria’s admission that her pain will now cause pain to others: “Now I hate too.” Neither Maria or Tony has Juliet or Romeo’s death wish, and Maria survives. Her life ahead will be filled with trauma and with the absence of her loved ones. Dr. Carla Della Gatta is Assistant Professor of English at Florida State University. She is the author most recently of Latinx Shakespeares: Staging US Intracultural Theater (University of Michigan Press) . Todd Rosenberg Manuel Stark Santos as Bernardo and Amanda Castro as Anita in Lyric Opera’s 2018/19 West Side Story .