The Charm of the West Side Story, Beautiful Musical

As one of America’s most beloved musicals, West Side Story has captured the hearts of many with its reimagined Romeo and Juliet love story. The play illustrates a fight for space between two opposing gangs and a plea for tolerance between the two love interests while simultaneously displaying the desired 'American Way of Life.' West side story, acclaimed for its racial inclusivity, may not be as progressive as its general audience trusts it to be. Through exploring how identity, erasure, and racism are handled through both the 1957 original play and a recent 2009 revival, one can see to what extent the original production was mollifying its white audience and promising “authenticity” with its rather prejudiced performance.

The original version of this show was innovative for its time, yet it is filled with inconsistency and underlying tones of racism. In terms of identity on stage, the two opposing gangs are easily racially coded, where one is specifically coded as “the other”. In agreeance with Herrera in his article “Compiling West Side Stories Parahistories, 1949-2009,” it is clear to see how America was captivated with gang violence. Herrera states how in modern understandings of youth criminality in the mid-1950s, “juvenile delinquents” were understood to be individuals, usually white kids gone astray, while “gangs” were ethnically or racially identified groups of kids defending and violating ethno-racial boundaries. This common cultural prejudice is seen with how the two gangs are coded. The Jets, also immigrants of polish decent, arrived generation early but believe that they’re insiders, with contrasting physical and racial appearances to sharks. They are characterized as blond, strong, dynamic, and healthy, the 'All-American Boy.' Even their gang name is innovative, strong, fast and based in high education and intelligence. Whereas, the Sharks are newly arrived Puerto Ricans, with black, dark skin, and skinny. These descriptions are readymade, stereotypical models of race. In “West Side Story A Puerto Rican reading of 'America,' Author Alberto Sandoval Sanchez shares similar sentiment in that he states that the Sharks are painted as dangerous, there name making them seem animalistic, simpleminded even. The ethnic other in this case is coded as the lower, lesser element within the play. The bad blood between the Jets Sharks mimics a common conceptual configuration that pits modern technology against nature. In this case, aerial military weapons are compared to primitive and barbaric instincts, civilization to savagery. As a way to appease the white American audience, their kind is put up on a platform while the “others” are pushed further down the social ladder. What is interesting though, is this pairing of warring groups was not the first type to come from Arthur Laurents. Laurents moved comfortably from Jews and Italians to Chicanos to African Americans to Puerto Ricans. He was searching for confrontation between any people of color and Caucasian Anglo-Americans without placing importance in the culture of who he was pitting against white people.

This production deals with Puerto Rican identity in an interesting way, by almost not dealing with it at all. Erasure of Puerto Rican culture is seen heavily throughout the original performance. By erasing key points of Puerto Rican identity (i.e. making them assimilate to American culture without imposing their own culture on Americans while still being labelled as “the other”) traditional audience feel more comfortable with the potential of a narrative driven by racial differences. Agreeing with Viviana Vargas in her article, “The West Side Story Appropriation We Never Really Talk About,” the authentic Puerto Rican voice was taken and altered for white consumption. The real issues such as achieving the American Dream and forging a life for themselves were erased within American mass culture in favor of the mambo and a hyperbolic Hispanic accent. Within the original production, Latino and Latina performers’ complexions were darkened to further distance them as the “other” within the play. The main Latina lead of Maria was played by a white woman named Carol Lawrence. In agreeance with Vargas, it is abundantly clear that it is difficult to laud a play for being “revolutionary” when the most inclusive, groundbreaking message of the show, an interracial relationship, is not truly shown onstage to white America, because the couple is made up of two white actors. After all, the white audience would have felt threatened by the ethnic outsider if they were to be highlighted on stage.

As a performance praised for its racial inclusivity, there is little knowledge of Puerto Rican culture found in the performance. Racism was not only furthered in this play because of cultural norms of the time period, but also because of its writers and lyricists. According to Sanchez, when Stephen Sondheim, lyricist of the musical, was first asked to join the writing team, he remarked, 'I can't do this show…I've never been that poor and I've never even known a Puerto Rican.' This is quite problematic on a multitude of levels. Writing the experience of a young Puerto Rican girl from a privileged white male perspective will in no way be accurate if said male is not given proper information about true Puerto Rican way of life. The Puerto Ricans displayed in West Side Story are simply fictional stereotypes stemming from a Anglo-American position of power. By creating and celebrating false notions of Puerto Rican life, author Arthur Laurents, renowned lyricist Stephen Sondheim, Composer Leonard Bernstein, and all-around Director, choreographer, and producer Jerome Robbins furthered a stereotype to such an extent that Puerto Rican people themselves began to identify with their fabricated culture.

To create an easily consumable musical for a majority white American public, it is clear one must not push the boundaries to an uncomfortable extent. Controversial topics may be covered, yet the real sociocultural implications of interactions between, say, Puerto Ricans and white Americans, will not be so heavily addressed. This original production is not a direct social commentary on the mistreatment and racism directed towards immigrants but rather a shiny Romeo and Juliet love story. Not keen on including the native language of its characters or the other dangers they face in everyday life, the original production glamorizes a life of hate and violence, leaving authenticity behind.

Looking at revivals, it seems as if most have attempted to keep the traditional values and classic songs within the musical, like the 1980s revival by Robins. But because “West Side Story” deals lightly with social change, previous revivals are weighed down by comparison between life onstage and life in modern day. Reviewers across decades have criticized that revivals are outdated for the world we live in today. In 1968, William Kloman wrote in The New York Times that “events have outrun its message.” Additionally, when Robbins staged the revival in 1980, Frank Rich penned, “the sociology and liberal faith of Arthur Laurents’ book are now fairly meaningless,” and viewers “no longer feel ghetto tragedies can be overcome by pleas for tolerance and understanding.” Yet, with a recent revival from 2009, paradigms have shifted by turning the lens to the Puerto Rican side of life with translated songs. Sole survivor of the original 4 creators of the original project, Arthur Laurents wanted to even the playing field for the Jets and Sharks, inspired by an adaption of his play were roles were reversed. Laurents is quoted saying, 'The musical theatre and cultural conventions of 1957 made it next to impossible for the characters to have authenticity. Every member of both gangs was always a potential killer even then. Now they actually will be. Only Tony and Maria try to live in a different world' Laurents wished to change the conventions that these characters lived in, making them more relevant for what was accurate at the time. Instead of inserting rather unrealistic ideals of love or hyperbolic depictions of culture, he wanted accurate representations. This adaption with a translated script both offers better realism within the play as well as evident racism with its still unauthentic Puerto Rican life. Referencing again “Compiling West Side Stories Parahistories,” I agree with Herrera’s points on the evident genius and evident racism found in the translated 2009 revival, the function of gang violence between an Anglo-Saxon an Puerto Rican city, and the unauthentic portrayal of Puerto Rican life.

The introduction of a bilingual script brought many opportunities to Laurents when crafting the new revival. According to Herrera, Peter Marks wrote in The Washington Post that the translated lyrics give “a truer sense of the cultural misunderstandings at the heart of ‘West Side Story’ as expressed in the characters’ disparate languages.” Allegedly, Laurents and the producers wanted Spanish lyrics to increase the emotional drama, not to increase sales for being “politically conscious.” With help from work renowned, Tony-winning Lin Manuel Miranda, they attempted to change famous songs like “I feel Pretty” and “A Boy Like That” to “Siento Hermosa” and “Un Hombre Así.” From Puerto Rican descent, the classic play was in good hands. Yet is a simple translation enough to accurately depict an entire culture of people. It is true that the Spanish language being included at all is a huge step in the right direction, yet it is not enough to completely enter the charged political sphere of social change. In this case, they are not trying to appease the white American audience, yet they are not making a completely legible art form, thus, not allowing for their authentic story to be told to their viewers.

Additionally, what could be seen as revolutionary actually only further emphasizes Puerto Ricans as “The Other.” When marketing to a primarily white audience who speaks one language, the action of including all Spanish songs distances their culture further away from the viewer. This loses the opportunity for a spark of interest, an attachment or bond to form with the audience and the performer. They cannot connect as easily with what is being performed for them when they cannot understand what the singers are saying. It is quite ironic how the element attempting to celebrate culture is only distancing themselves away from their audience. Similarly, Laurents stressed the importance of Spanish fluency when finding actors to play the Sharks. The irony is found where Jets had a level “New York” style accent, the Sharks lacked consistency, especially when singing in Spanish. The Regional variations in the speaking of Spanish were clearly evident. The many distinct accents among the Sharks proved a point of particular incongruity. This is an example of an attempt of cultural progressiveness being held back by a lack of attention to detail and time constraint. Yet it is important to note that it has made significant advances since the 1957 production. Though cultural stereotypes are still present, there are more celebratory moments within this revival than there were within the original. Recognizing the beauty of the Spanish language was something that the 1957 production lacked.

Laurents recalibrated the musical’s use of its Puerto Rican characters in ways that emphasized “love” as the story’s core thematic. It handled identity and erasure in a completely different way from the original version. Identity is addressed through language rather than stereotype. Erasure is not as fully present as the 1957 version in that pressure of assimilation was not as completely emphasized. The Spanish language combated sentiments of needing to conform to the American way of life. These characters were individuals in a fully fleshed community. While not without its flaws, this production has moved in the right direction. Certainly not placating a white audience to the extent of the original, this revival still has a way to go. Is it truly worth reviving if it was not originally politically correct? Viewers of any musical follow an impulse to link the performance to current economic and social trends abates, but it becomes easier to accept “West Side Story” on its own terms when it stands as its own piece. As Sondheim has said, dated does not necessarily mean bad. We can accept West Side Story as a product of its time. And it is worth reviving not because it is politically incorrect, but because the music deserves to be put into a more accurate cultural space to be better appreciated. No West Side Story production is without critiques of problematic depictions of Puerto Ricans in US performances, yet it is clear to see how the authenticity is heightened in the revival in contrast to the original production.