Letter from the Badminton Theater
«West Side Story» takes place in a rough neighborhood in New York City, where two rival gangs, the Caucasian Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks, have been menacing one another for some time. Regarded by many fans of musical comedies as their favorite of all time, despite it being a tragic love story, the musical is loosely based on the story of «Romeo and Juliet.» Here the famous balcony scene is transferred to the fire escape of a tenement block. And, as in Shakespeare’s play, there are no happy endings. However, this legendary piece has enthralled generations. «West Side Story» debuted on Broadway in 1975, several years after the idea was conceived by composer Leonard Bernstein and choreographer Jerome Robbins. Now a 50th anniversary celebration revival can be seen in Athens at the Badminton Theater through September 29. It is an excellent production that will no doubt leave its mark on the prospective musicals already in preparation for this season. This international tour, directed and choreographed by Joey McKneely, has arrived in Athens after playing in Tokyo, Paris, Austria, Switzerland and Germany. Over past decades, a frequent claim made against «West Side Story» was that it can seem dated. Right? Wrong. Less than a month ago near the junction of Sophocleous and Menandrou streets, in the very center of Athens, a brawl between two rival groups of immigrants, some of whom wielded knives, resulted in at least 11 injuries. Just as in the Bernstein story of 50 years ago, this incident exemplified both the senselessness of gang strife and the prejudice faced by the immigrants. «Hell broke loose when a group of Africans squared off against a group of Iranians…» one witness told television reporters – just as in the gang fight in The Rumble scene, during which the Puerto Rican Shark Bernardo kills Jet leader Riff and is, in turn, killed in anger by Tony, Riff’s friend. No doubt «West Side Story» is one of the greatest musicals ever. I have been a great fan myself for decades after seeing the original Broadway production at the Winter Garden Theater. It is a fact that Leonard Bernstein’s music took up the American musical idiom where it left off when one of the true authentic geniuses, George Gershwin, died. However, sadly enough, as in politics, all cultural disciplines are subject to the tyranny of the fashion of a certain period. Suddenly, it’s all about Andrew Lloyd Webber and Bob Gaudio («Jersey Boys») and Madonna; suddenly Manos Hadjidakis is out and Mikis Theodorakis is in; Karamanlis is down three-and-a-half points… The world of music exempt from this epochal whimsicality. One of the most egregious victims of this musical haute couture in our country is also Leonard Bernstein. The exponents of «higher criticism» in the Greek capital do not permit that name to enter onto the list of what Greek music-critics consider significant composers. «Bernstein was, after all, a songwriter… His music is episodic, loosely strung together by rather artificial transitions, modulatory devices and second-hand cadenzas…» This is how I heard one of our local high critics expressing himself the other day during the intermission at the Badminton Theater. This is sad, because Bernstein is certainly one of the true authentic geniuses American music has produced. History may even show him to be the truest and most authentic of his time and place. My personal evaluation is that the same will happen in this country with the over-estimated Theodorakis and almost forgotten Hadjidakis. Just like our Hadjidakis, Bernstein was a «natural» – evolving a body of music that sprang like phenomena of nature from their respective soils, fertile and flourishing. In the mid-80s Bernstein prepared a suite of orchestral music from the show, titled «Symphonic Dances from ‘West Side Story. ‘» In 1984, he decided to re-record the musical, conducting his own music for the first time. Generally known as the «operatic version» of «West Side Story,» it starred Kiri Te Kanawa, as Maria (who, incidentally, appeared in the sunset of her career last Monday in Thessaloniki’s autumn festival, «Dimitria,» with a deplorable city orchestra) and Jose Carreras as Tony. «West Side Story» demonstrates how powerful the medium of the musical can be. To sum up on Bernstein, here is a little-known episode from his life, as mentioned by Gore Vidal in his memoir «Palimpsest.» «When Senator Cranston, a California liberal, rang Lenny (Bernstein) to ask for money (this is what senators do even if they have never met the investor-to-be), Lenny listened impatiently as Cranston explained his positions on war and peace. Finally, Lenny said: ‘Well, all that sounds fine, but I really don’t know you or where you stand on… Well, on a really important issue… like…’ ‘Like what? ‘ Lenny took the plunge. ‘Like what would your position be on doubling the strings in the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth?» All that about a composer who should be considered in the same league as those who created «Singing in the Rain,» «My Fair Lady,» «An American in Paris» or – why not? – «Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.»
