In its original conception, the gang drama of West Side Story was to between Jews and Italians, so the story goes; but as the process unfolded, the gangs became quasi-Italian-American and Puerto Rican – both nominally Catholic, but in deep conflict. Of course, in Shakespeare’s original, both families were Italian, from the same stock. The dark theme of ethnic conflict among poor youth contrasts profoundly with the brighter theme of The Music Man and most other successful Broadway musicals, but the underlying current is still the same (yes, really!) What happens when personalities and cultures interact? What occurs if change does not happen? What is the result of change?
The social undercurrent of West Side Story is familiar: youth growing up in a seemingly hopeless situation. In their reaction to their environment they embark upon a course which can only result in disaster. Change is required, but who is going to do the changing?
West Side Story is more like grand opera than musical comedy. The principal characters behave archetypically and consistently, until the fina1 tragic scene. Both Shark and Jets join to carry Tony’s body; temporarily, at least, there is denouement – recognition of the humanity of the other.
Opposites are starkly drawn. We see the Puerto Rican young women and the America young men more than the Puerto Rican youth and the virtually absent American women; male versus female, youth versus cops; Sharks versus Jets. (In the motion picture version, the contrast is drawn even more sharply in the singing of “America”. Unlike the stage version, which involves the women only, the mock debate on the screen is between the women who like the improvement in their lives in New York, while the men would prefer to return to San Juan. In the later audio recording of the score, conducted by the composer, it is apparent that Leonard Bernstein preferred the stage version.)
Absent from the play is the explicit presence of the Church, otherwise represented in Romeo and Juliet by the friar. Instead, a “wedding” occurs in Maria’s bridal shop, with an implicit Catholic sense of sacrament. Adults, except for the cop and the pharmacist, are also missing. The lack of competent, mature presence already is an important undercurrent in Shakespeare’s original. The pharmacist is himself marginally surviving and seems numb and disconnected from the reality outside his store. The cop is impotent and inept. There is no pervasive patriarchal or matriarchal atmosphere – the gangs and the girls are “orphans” living out a sort of blind obedience to their fated doom. The glimmer of hope Maria and Tony’s love signifies hints at what might be possible with change. But even the lovers are a bit archetypal; not so much changing themselves, but fulfilling their own romantic, tragic selves.
The audience views West Side Story in social-cultural context. The tragedies of the inner cities continue decades since the play was first presented. And like real social-cultural problems, the implied solution for the story presented by the play is assumed to be larger than the play, projected outward onto the hidden bars and fences around the economic hell of the West Side. But we must not forget that the archetypal tragedy that is drawn by West Side Story is also portrayed as individual tragedies. Tony dies; Maria loses Tony…and her brother. Tony previously lost his friend, Riff, too. Tony and Maria are drawn as somewhat more than archetypal characters, because of the apparent openness to change. Again, however, even the two lovers did not change enough to save themselves.
So often the plea for mass change ignores the reality that the masses are made up of individuals. And the individual person is multifaceted. The emotionally hurting person wants to stop hurting as painlessly and as quickly as possible. Thus, drugs and alcohol are important as illusory shortcuts to “peace” and “no-pain”. There is no quick and easy solution for the hurting person who, in order to deal with the pain, must undergo the stress and strain of change and conversion, to challenge fate and achieve a kind of salvation.
West Side Story cries out for healing and peace and justice; but for the individual member of the audience, it is a cop-out to imagine that such changes and healing is not for him or for her. It is as much an illusion to imagine that all of the reasons for problems we face are outside of ourselves as it is to assume that chemicals are a means of eliminating the pain. The conflict between Tony and Maria’s brother, between Maria and Anita, between the Jets and the Sharks, between the gangs and Officer Krumpke… all of them exists within each of us.
Next: Quixotic
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