"Shofar, Show Good": Judaism in West Side Story
The Broadway Maven, David Benkof, interprets Broadway
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Shalom!
This week, The Broadway Maven looks at West Side Story:
• On Wednesday, April 7 at Noon and 8 pm ET, there will be a FREE Zoom class exploring the work of the four Jewish men who contributed the book, lyrics, dance, and music. Register here.
• Just a few hours ago I published a video exploring homosexuality in West Side Story.
• This Weekly Blast looks at the role Judaism plays in West Side Story; RAVES about an exciting, surprising show that’s headed for Broadway; RANTS about the musicals some high schools choose to present; and links to a YouTube GEM I created about the four Jewish men who created West Side Story.
• EXCITING NEWS: The Broadway Maven’s Weekly Blast signed up its 7,000th subscriber this week.
The Jewish identity of the creators of West Side Story is well known. Lyricist Stephen Sondheim, composer Leonard Bernstein, choreographer Jerome Robbins, and book writer Arthur Laurents were four Jewish men whose combined talents became a crucible for creating a remarkable show.
What’s Jewish about West Side Story?
Well the first three notes of the show - which become the building blocks of much of the score - is modeled after the Tekiah, the basic call of the Shofar, the ram’s horn. It’s interesting that Bernstein chose a symbol of repentance and reconciliation but also of power. Those three notes form a “tritone” (we’ll go over this in Wednesday’s class) which leaves the listener unsettled, and it’s Bernstein’s task to resolve that tension in creative ways, which he does splendidly in songs like “Something’s Coming” and “Maria.”
And the show itself was originally East Side Story, with the warring gangs Jews and Catholics, but later Jerome Robbins and his colleagues came to believe that Puerto Rican and “white” gangs would be more interesting. I’m not sure that’s true; in the original version the Maria character was a Holocaust survivor and Israeli immigrant, whereas Tony was an Irish Catholic.
It would actually be appealing for someone to create an East Side Story after all, with both adapted and fresh lyrics.
It’s a show I’d be eager to see.
The West Side Story class will look at the four Jews who created that landmark show. What is it about the lyrics, music, choreography, and book that combined for such on-stage (and on-screen) magic?
Sign up this FREE class - which meets Wednesday the 7th at Noon and 8 pm Eastern - here (bitly.com/MavenWSS).
The homework: watch the video below and decide whether you agree with me about homosexuality in West Side Story. Put your answer in the comments below the video.
A Funny Jews mini-course was just announced for Thursdays at Noon ET every week in May. Register here: bitly.com/MavenFunny
Desireé Applewhite: One of my favorite shows right now is the British pop musical Six. The show is a modern retelling of the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII presented as a pop concert.
First premiering in 2017, Six has been steadily rising through the theater ranks, gaining fans all over the world and for good reason. The show is fun and quirky, with extremely well-written characters and a score that will leave its songs stuck in your head for weeks.
Like Hamilton, Six does a wonderful job of depicting historical figures in a new way while still giving its audience real historical facts. Running only 80 minutes with no intermission, it's a short and sweet treat for regular theatergoers as well as a nice introduction for first timers who just want to see what good theater is all about.
Below you can watch a trailer of the show which will open on Broadway following the end of the COVID-19 shutdown.
Desireé Applewhite: Recently, we're seeing more and more shows with adult themes and mature scenarios produced at the high school level. While I love that young theater-makers are getting the chance to stretch themselves, I also greatly disagree with high-schoolers performing highly sexualized shows.
Shows like Chicago essentially hinge on the overt sexuality of their characters. It's not something that can be skirted around and as an adult, I don't want to watch underage children attempting to appear sexy.
The whole goal of a performer is to make the audience believe that they are the character they're portraying but this creates a problem when you have a teenage actor trying to convince an adult audience that they're a sexy vixen.
Yes, high school age performers should be exposed to the distinct style of these types of shows so that once they are of age, they have the skills to book these roles. However, I think it would be much more fruitful for them to get practice in classes or even dance competitions where the focus is on learning and perfecting the techniques and not attempting to appear as fully matured adults within a full-fledged production.
I’m very proud of this video, one of the first Broadway videos on my YouTube channel:
Wednesday, April 7 West Side Story (Noon and 8 pm ET)
Wednesday, April 14 Hair/Grease (Noon and 8 pm ET)
Wednesday, April 21 “If You Could See Cabaret Through My Eyes…” (Noon and 8 pm ET)
Tuesday, April 27 Fiddler on the Roof (Noon ET, ALL-ACCESS only)
Wednesday, April 28 Into the Woods (Noon and 8 pm ET)
Thursday, May 6 FUNNY JEWS: Philip Roth (Noon ET)
Monday, May 10 Les Misérables - Registration opens next week (Noon and 8 pm ET)
Thursday, May 13 FUNNY JEWS: SNL’s Jews (Noon ET)
Thursday, May 20 FUNNY JEWS: Funny Women (Noon ET)
Monday, May 24 Broadway show TBA (Noon and 8 pm ET)
Tuesday, May 25 Barbra Streisand’s musicals (Noon ET, ALL-ACCESS only)
Thursday, May 27 FUNNY JEWS: Norman Lear’s sitcoms (Noon ET)
-David Benkof, The Broadway Maven
