Friends of ArtQuest & Rialto Cinemas Lakeside Invite You to Rediscover: The acclaimed and Groundbreaking Movie Musical West Side Story

I will be introducing the Academy Award-winning “West Side Story” as a Special Event Movie Fundraiser for ARTQUEST at the Rialto Cinemas (Summerfield Road, Santa Rosa) this Thursday evening March 12. The donation ($35 adults, $15 students) includes the pre-show reception with Latin-inspired appetizers and local wines (and non-alcoholic beverages) prepared by Park Avenue Catering. The reception begins at 6:15, my introduction starts at 7:30, followed by the digitally-remastered film.

As a guide for ARTQUEST students, here are my notes for the introduction:

BROADWAY MUSICAL
Director/Choreographer Jerome Robbins first presented the idea for an updated musical version of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” to composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein in September 1949 “only his idea was that the girl would be a Jewish Holocast survivor and the boy an Irish Catholic. Six years passed until playwright Arthur Laurents added the idea of using street gangs instead of families, and that the gangs should by Puerto Rican and “American.” Stephen Sondheim then joined the group as lyricist, and in September, 1957, “West Side Story” opened on Broadway to mixed reviews. Many critics lauded the rhythms and dances, but others decried the violence and “raucous” music. No matter. Audiences loved the play and “West Side Story” was nominated for a Tony for Best Broadway Musical of the year. Although it lost to “The Music Man,” it did win a Tony for Jerome Robbins’ choreography.

MOVIE

Casting
When the movie was cast in 1961, Larry Kert (30) and Carol Lawrence (29) were considered to old to reprise their roles as Tony and Maria.

Elvis Presley was originally approached for Tony, but his manager, Colonel Parker, believed the role to be wrong for Elvis and made him say “No.” (When the movie became a hit and earned 10 Oscars, Elvis later admitted he had made a mistake).

After Elvis turned down the role, the producers announced their “final five” candidates to play Tony: Warren Beatty, Anthony Perkins, Russ Tamblyn, Troy Donahue, and Richard Beymer. Trade papers suggested that Perkins’ boyish looks and Broadway experience made him the obvious choice, and he wanted the chance to avoid getting typecast as a Norman Bates-type after his huge success in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho.” But instead, the producers chose the two former child actors from their “final five” “Richard Beymer won the less active role of Tony and the athletic dancer/singer Russ Tamblyn was given the role of Riff.

Jill St, John, Audrey Hepburn, and Suzanne Pleshette were tested for the role of Maria, but Natalie Wood was not even considered. She was filming “Splendor in the Grass” with Warren Beatty and the two were lovers off-screen. So when Beatty was called to screen test for the role of Tony, Wood came along. She had been practicing the role with Beatty so he could learn the lines, and so she read opposite Beatty on the set as a favor. The producers fell in love with the idea of Wood as Maria, and cast her immediately.

Dubbing Controversy
Both Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood originally recorded their own singing for the movie, but their voices were untrained and were overdubbed by Jimmy Bryant and Marni Nixon.

You can hear Natalie Wood’s voice in a section from the original “on set” version on YouTube at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mob7H6YUhB4&feature=related

Here is what Marni Nixon wrote about this years later:
“The sessions were set up so that Natalie would first record a song on her own and then I would get up and record the whole song again…they explained my presence by saying that they would be able to mix my high notes into her takes, which I knew at the time was…technically impossible. It was very disheartening to hear them as they listened to her playbacks and extolled her vocal prowess. ‘Oh Natalie, that was just wonderful,’ they cooed. They were creating a monster. A monster who thought everything she sang was perfect. I am sure, however, that they thought if they were critical of her vocals in any way that she would walk off the picture before everything was filmed. She had them hostage and they were placating her until they didn’t need her anymore. I heard later that Natalie was very upset and felt betrayed by the powers that be. She sincerely wanted to sing her own tracks. I have to agree that it was cruel of Saul Chaplin and his musical crew to lead her on and make her believe there was a chance they would use her voice. But in their defense it was their job to make sure that their highly paid and very bankable star finished shooting every scene. In addition, it was their responsibility to present the brilliant and difficult Bernstein/Sondheim score in the best possible light. This they did, and did it well.”

Director Controversy
Jerome Robbins was hired to direct the movie version, and he shot the opening dance sequence (filmed on the New York streets) the other dances and songs and the highly choreographed fight scenes (filmed in Los Angeles). But with 60% of the production completed, Laurents was fired. “Way over budget,” the producers told the press, and they had the Assistant Director Robert Wise finish the film.

The Directors Guild allowed (in fact insisted) that both Robbins and Wise both be listed as director in all movie publicity, and they both ended up with Oscar statuettes, when “West Side Story” won Best Director (as well as Best Picture, Best Actor and Actress in Supporting Roles for George Chakiris and Rita Moreno and 6 other Academy Awards).