West Side Story movie and musical help!?
Posted by davidawesomemovies
Similarities and differences/compare and contrast the movie and musical version of West Side Story.
Similarities and differences/compare and contrast the movie and musical version of West Side Story.
February 6th, 2010 at 5:52 am
The Broadway production could get away with more controversial things than the theatrical version back in the ’60’s. Here’s the IMDb trivia page. It mentions several things that were different between these versions.
For example:
The stage lyrics for the song "Gee, Officer Krupke" are "My father is a bastard, my ma’s an s.o.b. My grandpa’s always plastered…" The lyrics had to be changed for the movie to: "My daddy beats my mommy, my mommy clobbers me, my grandpa is a commie…" Also, the stage lyric was, "Dear kindly social worker, they say go earn a buck, like be a soda jerker, which means like be a schmuck." For the film, the lines were changed to "Dear kindly social worker, they say go get a job, like be a soda jerker, which means I’d be a slob."
Basically, it was softened for the movies.
February 6th, 2010 at 5:52 am
As usual, film adaptations differ from the original in (usually) important ways, one being that the story is "opened up"allowing for a less "static" (like a filmed play)feel to the production. WSS the play and film also differ in that some of the the dance sequences have been either juxtaposed (as in "America" where the Sharks boys and girls dance together, they don’t in the play) and dropping a ballet sequence toward the end of the play that for time constraints and possibly cohesiveness,had to go. In the case of the switching of number however, it actually improved the dramatic thrust of the play,making the ending more powerful in some ways than it had been onstage. The play was a smash hit however and a film version was almost inevitable.
The play won a score of Tony Awards and the film swept the Oscars