@princesssarisa @themousefromfantasyland @the-blue-fairie @thealmightyemprex @professorlehnsherr-almashy @countesspetofi @gravedangerahead @obufalo @his-own-kingdom
"Hear me out: The "Officer Krupke" song, like Queen Mab is about why humans are driven to passion and madness or, in this case, murder and street ballet.
Riff is...um..."riffing" on the forces that govern human behavior.
He and the other Jets see themselves as innocents being forced to explain themselves to systems too grand for any of them to fully comprehend.
And so they have to justify themselves legally, psychologically, sociologically before society just gives up on them, the point being that all individuals are forced to answer to a vast and uncaring cosmos and, well, "Krup" that.
Romeo and Juliet have so many people answer to. They're subject to the demands of their families, their friends, their God, the state of Verona, and their own passions.
So in "West Side Story", who do Tony and Maria have to answer to?
Officer Krupke? Their families? Adults? America?
Brush aside the superficial elements and "West Side Story" is ultimately a story about race.
In a non aristocratic society, that's our ancient grudge constantly being brought to new mutiny.
A feud that must seem as petty and sad to Tony and Maria as the Montague and Capulet feud must have seen to Romeo and Juliet, but no less deadly.
Contemporary reviews didn't mention that much.
They viewed it as a product of a broken youth culture rather than systemic racism, the fault of individuals rather than systems, the faults in ourselves rather than in our stars.
It's typical of how white middle-class America approached social issues back then.
In the New York Times review of the film, critic Bosley Crowther quoted this line:
"You make this world lousy."
"It is a cry that should be heard by thoughtful people - sympathetic people - all over the land."
Of course he missed the very next line.
"You make this world lousy."
"We didn't make it, Doc."
This was written before the 1960's, when identity politics blossomed and racism sexism and classism were challenged across the country, but that hint of what's to come simmers beneath the surface.
"So what if they do turn this whole town into a stinking pigsty?"
And when it explodes, it doesn't explode in the fight scenes or the dance scenes. It does so in the dialogue.
"Oh, yeah, sure, I know."
"It's a free country and I ain't got the right. But I got a badge. What do you got?"
Doc blames the kids, but he ignores the cops.
Just look at the way Lt. Schrank treats the gangs, asking the Sharks to leave but staying with the Jets trying to appeal to them as equals, sending the clear message that it's easier to speak to the authorities if you're a white in America.
"Are there any questions?"
"Yes, sir: Would you mind translating that into Spanish?"
Actually, the most recent Broadway revival hired Puerto Rican playwright and rapper Lin-Manuel Miranda to translate The Sharks' dialogue and some of the songs into Spanish, providing them with a more authentic voice and highlighting the cultural boundaries between the two gangs.
Boundaries which are alluded to and enforced by the adults and internalized by the youths.
So much so that even a well-meaning adult trying to reconcile them can't... like the adults in "Romeo and Juliet", the adults in "West Side Story" don't just exacerbate the problems, they perpetuate them.
But, unlike the adults in "Romeo and Juliet", the adults in "West Side Story" don't have any real authority. Shakespeare ended his play by having the prince stand over the bodies of lovers:
"Capulet! Montague! See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate, that heaven finds means to kill your joys with love."
"West Side Story" ends with a similar speech about hate, but the prince character doesn't say a word. He just stands there. Dumb. You know who gives the speech?
"You all killed him, and my brother and Riff. Not with bullets and guns. With hate! Well I can kill too, because now I have hate."
Juliet lives in this version, showing both sides the effects of their petty hatred.
"West Side Story" has its young perpetuate systems of hatred, but it also gives them the insight to recognize these systems and hopefully dismantle them.
Robbins, Laurents, Bernstein, Sondheim, and Wise read "Romeo and Juliet" as a play about overcoming hate, about how the tensions between duty to family and to society and duty to your own heart can both destroy and change.
By showing where that tension lies - between races, between generations - it shows how dangerous such systems are and questions, how we might resolve them."
(Brows Held High, West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet: July 15th 2015)
