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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

Posted on 02/25/2020 6:26:07 AM PST by C19fan

click here to read article


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To: C19fan

Idiocy. Musicals have never been about cultural musical purity. They have been about telling the story to their audiences with a blend of musical theater and whatever relevant ethnic flavor.

That’s how opera has long worked, to some degree, as well.

Authenticity that doesn’t reach audiences or optimally conveyed the story is not a useful value in this context.


41 posted on 02/25/2020 9:03:34 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: jmcenanly
"In the original story, they were Italians from Verona."

And it was only "Two Gentleman"

42 posted on 02/25/2020 9:21:51 AM PST by Psalm 73 ("You'll never hear surf music again".)
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To: C19fan

Back then (1950s) the PR gangs were a prominent factor in inner city troubles. Compared to today’s MS-13s they were little social clubs.


43 posted on 02/25/2020 9:27:00 AM PST by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Build the Wall Faster! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
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To: C19fan
I must I am laughing the Work Left is going after Bernstein.

Did you mean "woke" left?

44 posted on 02/25/2020 9:31:14 AM PST by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Build the Wall Faster! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
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To: Atticus
You have a point there.

By today's standards--such as they are, always in flux among the elite academicians who pretend to set them--William Shakespeare (a nom de plume if there ever was one) would be labeled a racist, a homophobe, and an anti-Semite.

But the PC crowd might encounter pushback in branding West Side Story composer Leonard Bernstein anything but a man ahead of his time.

As I understand it, Lenny would have been a member of two "protected classes."

45 posted on 02/25/2020 10:17:45 AM PST by logician2u
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To: Fiji Hill

Marcantonio was only a full-fledged Republican in his first term. The only Congressmember in the history of the body elected to have run on the Communist Party line. He was a member of the American Labor Party for the remainder of his time in the House (occasionally managing to get either the GOP or Dem lines). He represented East Harlem while Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (later on) had the remainder of Harlem. At one point, his district stretched down all the way to 59th Street.

https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=509112

He’s a piker now compared to most of the Demonrats today.


46 posted on 02/25/2020 12:31:07 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Dear Mr. Kotter, #Epsteindidntkillhimself - Signed, Epstein's Mother)
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To: logician2u

The depraved class and the deprived class?


47 posted on 02/25/2020 12:46:58 PM PST by Chaguito
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To: logician2u

The depraved class and the deprived class?

Whoops, Riff, not Lenny B.


48 posted on 02/25/2020 12:49:16 PM PST by Chaguito
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To: Opinionated Blowhard

Steven Spielberg remake out in Dec 2020.
You know he will change the story.


49 posted on 02/25/2020 2:21:15 PM PST by minnesota_bound (homeless guy. He just has more money....He the master will plant more cotton for the democrat party)
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To: minnesota_bound

The remake is quite good.


50 posted on 12/11/2021 12:08:43 PM PST by Borges
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To: MeganC

Yup—my parents took me on vacation to PR when I was a kid.

Omg.

I still have nightmares about the place.


51 posted on 12/11/2021 12:12:22 PM PST by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: Borges

Looks like you were among the few that watched.

Nolte: Steven Spielberg’s Woke ‘West Side Story’ Bombs with $10M Opening
https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2021/12/11/nolte-steven-spielbergs-woke-west-side-story-bombs-with-10m-opening/


52 posted on 12/11/2021 6:26:30 PM PST by minnesota_bound (I need more money. )
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To: minnesota_bound

That article seems more focused on what Spielberg and Kushner have said than anything in the film. It’s not really changed all that much. And it’s better directed and acted than the original film.


53 posted on 12/11/2021 8:15:37 PM PST by Borges
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