West Side Story

Did You Know...

THE DANCING

Choreographer and co-director Jerome Robbins spent two months choreographing the prologue before the dancers went to New York to shoot. Once shooting began, the choreography continued to change on a daily basis to adapt to the location and surrounds.
Shooting in New York was scheduled to last for 2-3 weeks; instead, it lasted 2 months altogether.
Several scenes, including the opening dance numbers, were shot on NYC’s West 61^st St. The area was home to many condemned buildings, which would later be demolished to make way for the construction of Lincoln Center.
The playground in the prologue was in a different location, however – the Puerto Rican area of East 110^th St. The scenes in the prologue were edited together so that the Jets leap into the air in one area (West 61^st St.) and land on the ground in another (East 110^th St.).
Many scenes, including the rumble, were carefully staged to specific but sometimes erratic beats. Rehearsal pianist Betty Wahlberg counted aloud for the actors during the knife fight.
Jerome Robbins believed the dance sequence for “Cool” would be the most innovative thing had had ever choreographed. But a consummate perfectionist, Robbins was never entirely happy with the end result.
Due to mounting costs, the studio insisted that Jerome Robbins relinquish all directing duties to Robert Wise. At that point, only 60% of the film was completed and they were in the midst of filming the complex “Dance at the Gym” number. Wise was able to finish the film as a solo director, thanks to the heavily trained dancers and several of Robbins’ assistants who stayed on. Robbins retained editing right to all the film he had completed.

See it W-I-D-E-S-C-R-E-E-N
This special edition 2-disc set was worth the wait. Original 16x9 widescreen format, new 5.1 audio, “West Side Memories” retrospective documentary featuring Natalie Wood’s original vocal recordings and new interviews with the cast and crew, storyboard-to-film comparison, and behind the scenes photos. Packaged with a collectible scrapbook that includes an essay by Ernest Lehman, the complete script, lobby brochure reproductions, and behind the scenes memos. Don’t miss it!

Showing on TV
Turner Classic Movies, 2/25/2005, 3:00 AM

THE SONGS

Much has been made about Natalie Wood’s singing being dubbed, probably because she was a high-profile movie star, and she expected at least some of her voice to be used. Her expectations were not unfounded. Wood’s contract provided she would make original recordings of all the songs, but due to the wide range and nearly operatic tone required, the producers decided to use the voice of professional singer Marni Nixon instead. However, they kept this decision from Wood during filming. Throughout the recording process, continued reassurances were made to Wood that her voice was “wonderful.” Wood was understandably angry when she discovered at the end of filming that the producers had no intention of using any of her voice recordings.
The dubbing of Maria’s voice was complicated by the fact that Nixon’s vocal track had to be matched to Wood’s completed visuals, which were filled with musical inaccuracies. Nixon had the difficult task of compensating for the flaws, and her hard work led her to demand a cut of the album royalties. Producers failed to give in, but composer Leonard Bernstein volunteered a percentage of his income to the singer.
Natalie Wood was certainly not singled out; associate producer Saul Chaplin made the decision to use professional singers for many of the numbers. Richard Beymer’s singing was dubbed by Jim Bryant. Rita Moreno’s voice in “A Boy Like That” was dubbed by Betty Wand, Russ Tamblyn’s voice in “Jet Song” was dubbed by Tucker Smith.
The placement of two numbers – “Gee, Officer Krupke” and “Cool” – was switched for the movie. Lyricist Stephen Sondheim had always argued for this change, as the earlier stage version had the comic “Krupke” number occurring after the death of Riff, when the mood is decidedly darker.
Sondheim wrote new lyrics for the film version “America,” which was a number for the Shark girls in the play but was expanded to include the boys in the film.

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THE WRITING, THE CAST, AND MORE PRODUCTION NOTES

In 1949, when Jerome Robbins and Leonard Bernstein first discussed the idea for a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, they imagined feuding gangs as Italian Catholic and Jewish. When work began on the production in 1955, the Italian-Jewish premise was abandoned as not contemporary enough.
Maria’s speech at the end was originally meant to be an aria. Playwright Arthur Laurents wrote a dummy lyric for Bernstein, who was unable to ever set it to music. Laurents’ lyric is the text of the speech as it appears in the final script.
Robbins originally wanted Maria to kill herself by taking sleeping pills at the end, to parallel the Juliet taking the potion in Shakespeare’s original story. That idea was quickly abandoned, however.
Laurents had to lobby the other three collaborators for the inclusion on the “Krupke” number. Robbins, Bernstein, and Sondheim were all skeptical, but Laurents argued for it by citing Shakespeare’s use of comedy in his plays.
Laurents has said he found the film version “appalling” because it lost the element of illusion necessary for a musical to succeed.
Before his Oscar-winning performance as Bernardo in the film, George Chakiris played Riff in the London production of the play.
Among the actors who auditioned for the parts of Maria and Tony were Suzanne Pleshette, Jill St. John, Tony Perkins, Warren Beatty, Bobby Darin, Burt Reynolds, and Richard Chamberlain.
The movie was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won ten. The only nominee who did not win was screenwriter Ernest Lehman. Leonard Bernstein received no nominations, as he was deemed ineligible by the Academy because his music was not written specifically for the film.

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BEHIND THE SCENES

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last updated January 2, 2005