Let ‘West Side Story’ and Its Stereotypes Die: The latest Broadway revival can’t fix the painful way it depicts Puerto Ricans.

NY Times ^ | February 24, 2020 | Carina del Valle Schorske

[Atticus]

And Hamlet should be banned, too. How dare Shakespeare write there’s something rotten in the state of Denmark.

[C19fan]

I must I am laughing the Work Left is going after Bernstein. Bernstein was a big time Leftie. Tom Wolfe viciously lampooned Bernstein when he hosted the Black Panthers.

[Fiji Hill]

“Harlem was a paradise until the Puerto Ricans came in!” Fred Sanford, circa 1975.

Perhaps. But Harlemites kept sending to Washington Rep. Vito Marcantonio (R-NY) who followed every twist and turn of the Soviet party line until the Democrat machines came together in 1950 to oust him.

[angcat]

My favorite soundtrack. I have been listening on Saturday mornings while I clean.

[.44 Special]

When you can’t do, critique.

[freepertoo]

I can hear Rita Morena singing that.

[teeman8r]

i grew up believing all puerto ricans could dance and were gay fighters...

who woulda thunk they ain’t

[Roccus]

America....w/lyrics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZr7tvCcSP8

[Buckeye McFrog]

You pretty much an no longer produce a stage play, movie or television show unless the villian is a white guy.

[Brooklyn Attitude]

Minorities take these things WAAAY too seriously. She does almost an anthropological analysis on a fictional play/movie. Let’s hope PR never votes for statehood. It would be a freaking disaster for us.

[Chaguito]

I think it was an affront to the Capulets! or was it the Montagues?

[Ford4000]

I used to think Broadway was okay until I went to one. Pretentious, obnoxious, boring, the audience was 90% women and I wasn’t sure of the other 10%. I actually wished I was waiting at the DMV.

[jmcenanly]

>Puerto Ricans? I thought they were Italians....
In the original story, they were Italians from Verona.

[wally_bert]

The only one I knew about was a detective at the 12th precinct for a while.

[Sergio]

Liberalism is fleeting and unmoored because its always destroying everything that came before it, including its own foundations.

Excellent insight...worth repeating.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

I think that instead of sharks vs. jets, they should update it to gays vs. trannies. You have to admit it would be one heck of a train wreck.

[Hootowl]

What painful depiction? I suppose I’m a bigot but my impression of the PRs in “West Side Story” was that they were tough, resilient, and determined to make it in the big city. If that’s a bad stereotype, well, so be it.

[Sergio]

They want to take down all the symbols, change all the names, and erase all the history because it reminds them of slavery. But try for one minute to STOP acknowledging slavery and their entitlement to reparations and affirmative action and see what you get.

Another excellent gem. Liberals seem almost schizophrenic in there ability to latch on to opposing views and make them as one.

[Brooklyn Attitude]

“I think it was an affront to the Capulets! or was it the Montagues?”

Capulets? Montagues? They don’t sound like Italian names.

[real saxophonist]

That would be they. GA Tech, '84, that would be finals.

The 'Zingali Zipper', named after the late George Zingali. I actually dated a girl from Cadets that year.

One year, in Whitewater, WI (which we all hated because of the mosqitoes and the grass was unusually slippery), I was standing on the sideline watching the Cadets. Here comes the 'Zingali Zipper', right toward me. One of them slipped and caused a big ol' pileup. About 6 people involved. They IMMEDIATELY got back up and finished.

Happened right in front of me. I doubt anyone in the stands even noticed, it happened so fast.

Drum Corps memories. I have thousands of them.