MUSICAL ♬ ♭ ♮ ♯ THEATRE

West Side Story Fashion Board. 

“Juvenile Delinquency is a Social Disease!”

Our mothers all are junkies, Our fathers all are drunks. ... We never had the love that ev'ry child oughta get. We ain't no delinquents, We're misunderstood....My parents treat me rough. With all their marijuana, They won't give me a puff. They didn't wanna have me, But somehow I was had. ...Society's played him a terrible trick, And sociologic'ly he's sick! ... This boy don't need a job, he needs a year in the pen. It ain't just a question of misunderstood; Deep down inside him, he's no good!

It struck me as very odd that it was the Jets that actually said this. While it is true that the police or Officer Krupke who represents the police force/authority does not treat the Jets very well, it is nowhere near how he treats the Sharks. If the Jets were treated as subhuman, then the Sharks were treated as sub-vermin. There was a hierarchy of tolerance or perhaps of hate, even for these “hoodlums” and race plays a huge factor in it. In the scene at Doc’s Candy Store, Officer Krupke insults the Italian Jets, calling them stupid hooligans that came from “tinhorn immigrant scum[s].” He also humiliates Action, asking about the “action on the [his] mother’s side of the street,” meaning that his mother prostituted herself out. Despite the Jets being “white” and “passing” physically, they were still heavily stigmatized for being descendents of immigrants. Like the song, “Gee, Officer Krupke”, they’ve got troubles of their own.

When compared to the Sharks, Officer Krupke’s action goes beyond just verbal insults. In the same scene at the candy store, Krupke pulls the chair from right under Bernardo, and being very clear about his intention of getting the Sharks out. He challenges what Bernardo can do, saying “it’s a free country and I don’t got the rights. But I got a badge, what do you got?” It shows how in this community, just being free is not enough, it offers no protection, authority and being white definitely offers more security or at least more room for negotiation, what Krupke has been doing for the entirety of the movie with the Jets, trying to negotiate. He offers “even lend[ing] a hand if things gets rough” if they would tell him where the rumble is. In the beginning too, he asks Baby John, which one of these PRs bloodied him, hoping to get anything to lock them up. In a way it feels like Krupke is willing to negotiate with the Jets because in his mind they are more similar to him and actually open to reason whereas the PR are savages who he feels like can’t understand him or maybe he feels too above them to ask for cooperation.

On a personal anecdotal note, on the trip to NY, I witnessed a fight between an Indian driver and a white European tourist. The people with the tourist was trying to hold the raging tourist down who was lunging at the driver. He was cursing and aggressive even though the driver was trying to step away back into his car. Even when the police came and restrained the aggressor, he was laughing. The police asked him, if that’s really what he want, to go to jail, trying to talk sense into him. I walked away afterwards. Back at the hostel, I talked with Lenny who was at the front desk and he was of Latino background. I told him about the way that the police acted made me skeptical. I wondered if he would treat a PoC aggressor the same way. I think that the police wouldn’t have hesitated one moment to just take a colored aggressor right to the station. Lenny said that it seems likely. He also recounted the times of how skin colors have a direct influence over how the police treat young delinquents. Lenny came from a more violent and crime ridden neighborhood and as a kid growing up, even if he and his friends were just sitting outside with drinks and hanging out, cops would show up and swing at and break their bottles, harassing them asking what they were up to. He recalls how he sees white kids hanging around in parks and public places and they would harass the cops, asking what they were looking at and the cops wouldn’t do anything about that. Similarly, when R&B, Hiphop or Rap events and concerts open up, there would always be police everywhere ready to arrest. Lenny admits that there was substance use, but it was mostly just marijuana and alcohol, but it’s quite mild compared to the narcotics and LSD that generally, ranging from middle to upper class, White kids take when there are EDM, Raves or Dubstep concerts. The cops would often laugh light heartedly at this crowd, with the impression that they are reminiscing on their youthful days too. It is really unsettling to hear such personal accounts of injustice.  

The idea of teenage gangs first emerged in the 50’s. They were initially started as cliques of bored youths. In more impoverished neighborhoods, they really had nothing except for their pride and “manhood”. And so, what became the subject of dispute was their “turfs” which these youths guarded with their lives. Some of these turfs were as small as six blocks, but to these kids, it was everything. These younger gangs were ruthless, always trying to outdo one another to build up their ‘reps’. These rumbles happened very close to the tight living quarters of their community too, paralyzing them with fear. To combat these, the streets were flooded with social workers, police, afterschool programs to try and keep the kids off the streets. For a little while, it did work. Teen gangs re-emerged less than a decade later, but only to have the stakes driven higher. This time, they were centered around organized crimes of the drug trade and instead of just using belts and knives, they started to use guns like AK-47, UZI submachine guns.

Something that was very nicely coordinated was the Color coding of the different gangs and their affiliates. The Sharks wore purple and red, some orange, to the dance. For the Jets, they had on baby blues and mustard yellow. It’s interesting that the complementary colors of the gangs are worn by their rivals’ female counterparts. The Jets’ girls wore yellow to the Shark’s purple, and the PR girls wore corally reds and oranges to the Jet’s greenish, yellow. While visually it looks stimulating and helps the audience differentiate the two groups, it’s actually very accurate to real life gang dress codes. Whether, it’s a symbol or color or a particular style or article of clothing, each gang has their own visual identifier for its members to wear proudly and to “represent” their organization.

Other than the colors that the two gangs chooses to wear, what the production (movie) also captured very well too was their style. Gangs have always been around, but it was only in the 50’s that teenage street gangs started to emerge. So of course, this drastic change in age has a direct influence over the fashion choices of these boys. Whereas older, “traditional” gangsters, such as Al Capone, Bugsy Siegel, and John Gotti, amongst many others, are known for their nice designer suits on par with or even surpassing professional successful businessmen. For these teens, who were just fighting for turf and pride, there wasn’t really much monetary gain nor was their aim to be respected as “a businessman” they were proud of their brash way of living. Instead they wanted to be fashionable and sharp to their peers. “Joe “The Animal” Barboza was a hit man who did the dirty work, but still managed to look sharp. When he wasn’t wearing the traditional suits, he puts on a more “utilitarian look of sunglasses, cardigans, and chinos…[which] inspired street thugs all over the East Coast, as can be seen on the Italian jets in West Side Story” (Luecke). For the Sharks, they were equally as fashionable but with a noted touch of classy flare. Even before the scenes at the dance, and even in the first scene when the Sharks are first introduced, Bernardo was shown wearing a bold red button down shirt. His crew sported more collared shirts compared to the Jets’ casual tees. This difference can be an influence of their Latino background. As seen in the dance hall, the young Sharks danced the Mambo, a dance originated from Cuba, Puerto Rico’s neighbor, and the girls mostly wore dresses with big layered frills seen in traditional Hispanic and Latino dancewear, and the Shark boys wore tailored slim fitted shirts and suits. Another possible influence of this costuming is the Pachuco culture of that made its way to the West Coast (LA). Pachuco culture is a subculture of Mexican or Latino-Americans and is often associated with zoot suits, street gangs, nightlife, and flamboyant behaviors. Though, the Sharks obviously did not wear Zoot suits, but it’s the idea of having a cultural flair/flamboyancy to their clothes, especially their bold bright colors.

//Bernardo and his bold button down shirt

Every Breath_I Age Even More:

After the Mother and Father Munchkin had Tin Munch (sorry, I’m shortening his description), there was a scene in which the three characters would take a deep breath and when they exhaled, the actor who played Tin Man would stand taller and the ones play the parents would “shrink” on the spot. What was nicely surprising was that on the third exhale or so, we were shown that the mother had passed away. It was a very nice touch to the timing of the story. If the two of them were to die at the same time, it would be too predictable and lackluster.

Double Time House Building:

I really liked the way that there was no actual tree that the actor is chopping at so inorder to make it look and feel like he was really, all the actors on stage would sync their stomping or clapping to the swing of the Tin Man’s axe, creating an echoing effect of timber being cut. And because this production had a fairly modest set with lots of nonspecific space, it was very easily to create an abstract space that the story takes place in. So it worked out nicely that while the Tin Man was miming chopping down a tree, the background actors would simultaneously build a house like structure and the idea of Tin Man building a house through his own labor is communicated very cleanly.

Variety Show: Somebody Else’s Arms:

Overall, it was very interesting and had nicely made puppets and puppetry. Perhaps it’s because I haven’t seem much live shows, the use of puppets acting as characters and not just props along side actors is pretty new to me. Other than the puppets though, I think that the show fell a bit flat. There were lots of potentials with what they had but boundaries really weren’t pushed enough.

For example, the story was a fairly standard love story. Boy meets girl. Boy marries girl. They build a home and have another boy. This boy meets another girl. Boy marries girl. They build a home. But Boy loses girl ultimately. The events that lead to the couples falling in love though were so vague, or even completely skipped that it was way too hard to believe.

The premise of the story was nicely conceived though. It was presented at the beginning that the crows were the ears of the Witch and that she was always able to eavesdrop on the Munchkins whenever she pleases, leading to a widespread abandonment of language and words. So all of the songs or numbers performed by the Munchkins were hummed or created by using props to tap out a rhythm. The only sung words were performed by the deceased Munchkin parents (the original pair of Boy and Girl). Conceptually it was beautiful, but it’s just that the melodies or tunes were not memorable enough. There was also no spoken words in the entirety of the play after the introduction, except for a single “HELP!” from the Tin Man’s Wife after the curse of the Wicked Witch. As a result of that, it was a lot of grunting and gasping sounds. It became overbearing after a while, especially if they were pretty much the same tone/inclination/feel of grunting. There could’ve been so much to explore given the conceit of having not more spoken language. One could have played with absolute silence, artificial vocalizations/code systems, or body/sign language. Yet, we were stuck with grunts and heavy breathing.

Something else that was probably worth exploring was diversity within the cast. I thought that because this is set in a fictional Land of Oz, not based in reality, it would be easier to include all kinds of people. There was no need to have any “racial” resemblance since in the introduction, it’s been established that these Munchkins of this region wore blue and that was their identifier. I’m not sure if it was just the applicants or if there was any meaning or reason behind the cast, but they were ALL WHITE. On top of that, they all “looked” a certain way. They were mostly milky skinned, and had very refined European facial features. I made a note in my sketchbook when the curtains first were raised that “they were all too pretty.” It was so cleaned up and cookie cutter that I made me very uncomfortable. When paired with the horrific romance storyline, it was so uncanny how much the audience (predominantly white) loved it when it wasn’t meant ironically. They genuinely loved it. It made me think, “is this what love looks like to them? is this normal? Why should this be what the norm looks like? This is cute? What makes this cute?”

In class, you mentioned that Japanese culture is more visual than auditory. That may be true, but I think that that reason is much too dismissive. Just as with any other culture, there is a rich history of storytelling and traditional folk music. Recently I’ve come to learn about something called Rakugo, “Fallen Words”, in which the performer has little to not prop, save for his fan for making occasional tapping sounds or gesturing, and he or she would play all the characters involved in the story. And then there are other kinds of plays too with costume and props and different actors, but still told in a particular and exaggerated sing song ways. These tends to be accompanied by acoustic and percussion beats to accent the action. Each have their own distinctive sound and style. Not that these are exactly what the producers should pull from or include into the play, but it’s just that there are a lot of possibilities out there too that could be referenced. In terms of musical arrangements as well, there are generic “oriental” style tunes and melodies, but once you get more in depth with each country, you can definitely distinguish the differences between traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indian, Thai, or Vietnamese, etc, music. I felt that during the performance, I couldn’t really tell which parts were distinctly Japanese, or that they were so brief that they flew right over my head.

I have to say, Allegiance made me feel a bit uneasy in terms of  the representation of Asians and Asian Americans. It’s a bit difficult for me to be able to say it’s completely wrong, especially because the play is about Japanese Americans and I’m of Chinese descent. However, there are enough parallels culturally that I think I reference some of my own experience.

First thing that really bothered me was the accent or maybe just the mannerism/acting that Christopheren Nomura who played Tatsuo Kimura used. It just felt very trite. I don’t know if Japanese men from that time really talked like that, but it didn’t feel right. The abrupt fragmentations of sentences plays into the stereotype of Asian accents. I’m not familiar with the actor, but even if he does have an accent in real life, I feel that the playwright should have written the dialogues differently. I feel that it’s really insulting to oversimplify so much the speech of an immigrant. It suggests that if  they can’t express their thoughts fluently in English, their understanding/intellect is limited to what they can convey…. Or at least that’s what I’ve observed from people who interact with PoC (not just Asian). From what I can gather in the play, the whole Kimura family is really thoughtful and insightful and there is no way that the father should speak so crudely. With my understanding of the Chinese language (and Japanese has a Chinese root), most of the speech used, especially in older generations, are more poetic and proverbial.

Why is it that the producer/writer is so quick to simplify? Not only is it insulting to the people they are trying to represent, but also to the audience. It is undermining the audiences’s ability to relate and learn. I think that they are expecting the audience to not understand. They are essentially dumbing down the whole cultural context of the play. The way that the play is structured, Japanese influences are more showcased in snippets, presented to the “American” audience, rather than be an integral part of the play, weaving itself throughout scenes in a realistic, everyday-life kind of way.

The Second thing is the stereotypical portrayal of familial members. I think that with male family roles, there’s is too much of a set image of how they act that this production failed to really break free from. George Takei played the cheeky aloof but wise grandfather, but at times, I feel as though the cheekiness almost becomes gimmicky and distracts from the story’s tone. Comic relief is important, but it was just a bit too much and when it comes to having the grandfather deliver the more serious cultural insight to Keiko and Sammy, it’s too much of a jump that doesn’t quite feel believable.

With Tatsuo (the father), it was also pushed over the top. It is definitely an attested to truth that Asian parents often have a preset path for their children and that they are very much concerned with grades and schooling, but the way that the play shows this attitude is in too much of a typical Asian joke. For example, the “straight A- student” and the absurd pressure to be a doctor for Sammy, were all presented without any hint later on as why Tatsuo wanted those things. For a lot of immigrant parents, it’s about having to labor away during their youth to build a future for their children and that it if their children where not to succeed, it would not be just the children’s loss, but also the parents. It’s their whole life thrown away. It’s different from more settled, 4th or 5th+ gen. white immigrant families, who already have some made a life for themselves and that if the children were to forfeit their opportunities, it would just be a pity, and it doesn’t jeopardize the older generation’s lively hoods. I think that rather than having the father be so unreasonably angry and stubborn and overbearing, it can have more to do with him being frustrated that his intention and feelings are not reaching Sammy.

In the same vein, perhaps Sammy could be trying to understand but struggling to agree with his father. Being an Asian American myself, it’s definitely something that happens lot, understanding the perspective of my parents but simply because of my upbringing in America, my outlooks and my values are so different that I cannot simply agree and go with something I don’t believe in even though my parents wholehearted believe it.

Lesbian 101

It’s interesting how the play shows a spectrum of lesbians. First we see that young Alison starts off as the tomboy persona. She refuses femininity. Later, we meet college Alison and she was portrayed as almost a lost puppy, who has yet to understand her sexuality. She did not even know she was in a closet. Ultimately, narrating Alison is dressed very gender neutral with short cropped hair who talks about the more personal and internal/intimate experiences of her homosexuality. Joan on the other hand is quite the opposite to Alison, she is more aware and experienced. Joan has come out and faced the world and their stigma by the time she meets Alison. Joan is a “political” lesbian; she can probably speak more about the issues of society rather than on the familial scale that Alison has only started to experience. *Side note: I find it extremely funny that Joan looks like she came with us from RISD. The fact that she is supposed to represent a liberal LGBTQ activist and feminist and that is what the majority of RISD population is and it pleases me so much that she is a face that is so familiar to me, that I am so blessed to be part of such an accepting school community* The mail-woman is also another example of lesbian archetype that Fun Home includes. Narrating Alison recalls fondly about the lady’s giant ring of keys and khaki uniform; “she was an old-school butch.” This is someone that inspired young Alison. Something about her imaged resonated.

I really liked the progression/change in how the audience perceives the father’s homosexuality. At first we are presented with him being in a way, the standard gay perfectionist. He has the perfect aesthetics. But later, we understand that his obsession with the exterior is a result of his desire to hide his sexuality. I especially love the foreboding comment on how his job is to “hide all signs of trauma” at the fun. home in the beginning.

When we first see the father actively engaging in romantic/sexual acts with the yard guy, the narrating Alison comments jokingly that it was like an old school lesbian novella. In retrospect, this was nicely done to set up the later shocking reveal of the father’s decay. Something small though ,in that same scene with the yard guy, there was a hint that things weren’t quite right. The father demanded for the younger man to open his shirt before he gives him the drink. The young man complied. During the show, I remember I laughed uneasily. At the time, I thought that it was just really unreal cheesy straightforward bad pornography parody. But the tone that the actor delivered the command, was rather unnerving, and sinister, it wasn’t so flirtatious anymore but aggressive.

The next time that we see him with another man/boy was when he drove with his groceries and picked up a student. This time, it wasn’t so awkward and funny anymore. His demeanour felt more desperate than nervous. It felt more plotted out. Unlike the first time, when the yard guy showed more interest in the cognac, the father had offered and insisted the student take a beer even though the boy did not know about the presence of the alcohol and even refused. He was trying to lure this boy in. And later, we find out that this incident had actually took a turn for the worst too, with Bruce getting caught distributing alcohol to a minor. It turned from cheating to more and more serious crimes.

I really love the costume design of this production. Or at least this version of the revival. I think it’s great that it’s more racy and pulls from fetishism or subculture. I mean Berlin at the time was just the perfect breeding ground for fetishes. The body harness of the Emcee feels really BDSM or goth. The incorporation of cross dressing is nice too. In the 2 Ladies number, I like how one of the ladies is a man. I wonder if they are trying to allude to issues of gender identities which has become more and more talked about and a pressing topic in our time. It must have been a choice for the director/production to use a man because they clearly had enough Kit Kat Girls to play the part.