Line #20 Trivia/WestSideStory


1	!!Films
2
3	* ''Trivia/WestSideStory1961''
4	* ''Trivia/WestSideStory2021''
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6	!!Musical
7
8	* BreakthroughHit: Despite his dissatisfaction with some of his lyrics, this musical put Stephen Sondheim on the map as one of the most well-known songwriters on Broadway.
9	* CreatorBacklash: Music/StephenSondheim didn't think very highly of the lyrics he wrote for this. Some songs sound as simplistic as something a real New York teen would improvise ("Maria!/I've just met a girl named Maria/And suddenly that name/Will never be the same/To me.") while others sound too complex ("I feel pretty/Oh so pretty/I feel pretty and witty and gay!/And I pity/Any girl who isn't me today."). He also admitted that he didn't think it was a good idea to switch Maria and the Sharks' ethnicity from Jewish to Puerto Rican during development, feeling that the creators' knowledge of the group's culture and experiences was too limited.
10	* GodNeverSaidThat:
11	** The popular fan-theory of Maria killing herself off-screen has never exactly been confirmed.
12	** It is common among theater groups to think that the Jets actually rape Anita in the original musical, but this is toned down to empty taunting in the film version. The original script for the musical is also kind of ambiguous if they are only taunting her (Baby John is said to be lifted on her by the others, rather than willingly going on her). Even if they were seriously going to rape her, it is also possible that Doc stops it in time
13	* TroubledProduction: The 2020 Broadway revival suffered from a combination of production issues and controversy. First there was uproar when it was announced that the production would be excluding "I Feel Pretty" and the "Somewhere Ballet". Then came the casting of infamous dancer Amar Ramasar whose prior involvement in a sex-related scandal brought even more bad publicity to the revival, to the point of straight up protests. Then even more controversy came occurred when the advertising featured only male characters. This, combined with the removal of the leading lady's solo then lead to numerous accusations of sexism, which some felt was backed up by other portions of the show, such as a much more explicitly rape like scene when Anita's assaulted and the highly controversial Ramasar's character taking the place of a female role to perform the cinematic version of "America". Moving onto problems within production, the preview period saw a high number of the actors becoming injured. Many believe that this was due to the simulated rain in the second half causing them to slip in the wrong ways. Those involved in the production denied this and claimed it was due to overly enthusiastic actors taking their falling too hard during choreography, but detractors continued to call for the removal of the rain. Among the actors who were injured was Ben Cook (Riff) to such a degree that he left the production altogether and had to be replaced. Leading man Issac Cole Powell was also injured and required a significant amount of time to recover, with the the opening date being pushed back because of this. And then, not long after the show officially opened to mixed reviews, all of Broadway was shut down due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic. And unlike most other shows that had opened during this period, it was disqualified from that year's Tony Awards because not enough voters had time to see the recently opened show. During the long wait to see if the show would come back to Broadway, it's producer Scott Rudin found himself at the center of a controversy where he was called out for abusing his employees, causing him to withdraw from this and all his other shows. Several months later it was eventually confirmed that the show would not come back to Broadway.
14	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
15	** In the first draft, ''East Side Story'', Tony was an Irish-Catholic and Maria a Jewish Holocaust survivor. The characterisation was rewritten after co-writer Laurents had been [[RippedFromTheHeadlines reading newspaper articles about a spate of Chicano turf wars in Los Angeles]].
16	** An alternate opening showed the Jets in a clubhouse, fantasizing about going to the moon.
17	** The writers toyed with the idea of having Maria take a sleeping pill to fake her own death so she could run away with Tony, much like [[Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet Juliet]] does with Friar Laurence's potion. But in the end they couldn't find a way to make this believable and replaced it with Anita lying that Chino killed Maria.
18	** At one point ''Maria'' was going to be the victim of assault by the Jets (how that would have worked within the plot is unknown), but later the scene was given to Anita instead, leading to her above-mentioned lie.
19	** Early drafts toyed with at least two different endings - one that was closer to ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' and had both lovers die in the end, and another one that had Maria die and Tony survive – before the final ending of Tony dying and Maria surviving was settled on.
20	** Maria would have sung about the murderous power of hate, instead of making a dramatic speech. According to Leonard Bernstein's daughter, they couldn't come up with anything that didn't feel corny.
21	** Bernstein and Robbins originally wanted Betty Comden and Adolph Green, their collaborators on ''On the Town'', to write the lyrics, but they declined. Bernstein then planned to share lyric-writing duties with the young and untried Sondheim, but in the end Sondheim wound up writing all the lyrics himself, with Bernstein's only lyrical contribution being the line "Gee, Officer Krupke, krup you!"
22	** What eventually became "Gee, Officer Krupke" was originally meant to be a song in ''Literature/{{Candide}}'', which Leonard Bernstein was also working on at the same time as ''West Side Story''.
23	** Stephen Sondheim originally wrote "America" as a duet between Anita and Bernardo, backed up by their friends, arguing over the pros and cons of living in the country. However, Jerome Robbins insisted it be changed to an all female number since the show didn't have one and asked for the overtly political lyrics to be removed. The original idea for the number would later be restored in both film versions and several revival productions.
24	** "One Hand, One Heart" was supposed to be Tony and Maria's song in the balcony scene, but the creative team decided it was too slow for the scene. Bernstein and Sondheim took Tony and Maria's music from the "Tonight Quintet" and expanded it into a full song.
25	** In the version of the ending that had both Tony and Maria die (and Chino too – Maria would have shot him before shooting herself), Anita would have reentered and given a speech to the two gangs explaining all that had happened, making them realize their shared guilt in the tragedy. This would presumably have redeemed her for her fatal lie. But when the writers resolved to let Maria survive, Anita was written out of the scene, leaving her as a KarmaHoudini in many viewers' eyes.

Context Trivia / WestSideStory