September 25, 2007

50 Years?

Both NPR and ABC News have noted that this week is the 50th anniversary of the opening of "West Side Story" on Broadway. The music was written by Leonard Bernstein, the lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, the book by Arthur Laurents. It was conceived, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins.

There's not a bad piece of music in the show, but here's the one I find myself whistling. It's America, sung and danced by Rita Moreno and the Shark Girls. (This is from the film. Chita Rivera played the part of Anita on Broadway.)

Posted by Linkmeister at September 25, 2007 09:37 AM | TrackBack
Comments

Thanks for the reminder, and for YouTube's link.

Posted by: Serge at September 26, 2007 09:21 AM

There are quite a few YouTube clips tagged West Side Story, if you need another fix.

Posted by: Linkmeister at September 26, 2007 09:42 AM

That long ago? (I've got the piano/vocal song highlights around here somewhere... may have to dig it out again. And put the movie in my NetFlix queue.)

Thanks for the reminder.

--glinda, wandering over from Making Light

Posted by: glinda at September 26, 2007 02:46 PM

That was terrific. I may have to get in line behind glinda at Netflix.

Having now sung a major Bernstein piece, the MASS, I have a much greater appreciation for how HARD that music is to perform, and how much work went into those effortless phrases. That thing is in at least 4 time signatures...

Posted by: hedera at September 28, 2007 07:08 PM