Here’s a West Side Story riff from last November, paywalled from the get-go. The basic point was that while the rooftop “America” song was the highlight of Robert Wise’s 1961 version, the same number in the 2021 Steven Spielberg version is arguably the least transporting and most bothersome. Here’s how I explained it:
In Robert Wise’s 1961 West Side Story as well as innumerable stage versions performed over the decades, the dance scenes are never acknowledged by passersby, much less performed for them. In fact, passersby barely exist.
The basic West Side Story rule is that each dance number happens in the hearts and minds of the Jets or Sharks. And one other thing about the Wise version: Except for the opening sequence (i.e., ballet-like daytime street fighting), the dancing happens in a restricted space of some kind (dance hall, tenement rooftop, back alley, dress shop, drug store, rumble under a highway), and always among Jets or Sharks and their immediate kin or sympathizers.
The dancing, in short, is restricted to the immediate “family.” Neighborhood civilians never notice or acknowledge that any carefully choreographed activity is going on. The dancing is rigorously intimate — members only.
Which is why Spielberg’s “America” scene with Ariana DeBose (Anita), David Alvarez (Bernardo) and friends in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story is all wrong. Because sidewalk neighborhood residents are clearly watching Anita and Bernardo and their friends “cut a Latin rug”, so to speak. And, one presumes, are enjoying the “show.”
The problem is that according to the rules, there is no “show”. Not as far as casual neighborhood residents are concerned. If Spielberg had decided to have the entire neighborhood sing along with Anita and Bernado, fine. But he didn’t. He just had them stand and watch and chuckle…”why, they’re dancing in the street, and with such professional aplomb!”
Again: Neighbors watching the singing and dancing of “America” is a violation of a basic West Side Story rule.
