At London's
talk by the
playwright, Richard Bean, until they were taken off stage by the
theater’s
security. The two
men went on stage to object the play, England People Very Nice,
for
The famous Romeo and Juliet retelling will make it's way back on stage after 51 long years since it's debut performance. West Side Story will make its return to the very stage it opened on in 1957; however this time, the Puerto Rican gang -- the Sharks -- will get their due.
The gritty revival made its first preview performance at the National Theatre in Washington, DC, which was the very same stage where the musical made its first fun prior to moving to Broadway in 1957. The lyrical brilliance of Stephan Sondheim along with Leonard Bernstein
's grand moving score, changed the outlook and direction of musical theater, transforming a clean and sanitized make-believe tale into a tale of urban reality and grit.The play has been revived on more than one occasion, so this idea of a re-installment comes as nothing new. After the first 1957 stage performance, what followed was the Oscar-winning 1961 film starring Natalie Wood as Maria and Richard Beymer as Tony, which was shot on the streets of the Upper West Side New York. After the film, there were stage revivals in 1964 and 1980, yet neither of them were all too memorable.
However, the revival is receiving lots of buzz because of the play
's new director -- Arthur Laurent, a veteran of musicals who has the reputation and credit of being the author of the original West Side Story.The play is receiving bilingual reworking by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is the creator of a recent hit musical
In The Heights, which centers around a poor neighborhood of Manhattan's Washington Heights faced with gentrification. The Sharks will sing in Spanish, with English surtitles while the Jets will sing in English. In fact, Maria's famous "I Feel Pretty" song will come out as: "Hoy me siento/Tan hermosa/Tan preciosa que puedo volar/Y no hay diosa, en el mundo, que me va a alcanzar."The idea of a bilingual performance was given to Laurents after his companion, Tom Hatcher, watched an all-Spanish performance of the musical in Colombia -- where the Sharks were the heroes of the story and the Jets as the villains.
The original story of West Side Story will be forever known as a retelling of Shakespeare
's classic tale of love and tragedy -- Romeo and Juliet. However, during the 1950's, America witnessed an influx of the Hispanic population, specifically in New York City. This just came during the time when certain parts of the country faced poverty from never recovering from the second World War and also during the time when there was a high in juvenile delinquency and racism. The song, "America", was based on the notable difficulties that immigrants faced during their time here in the United States.West Side Story
told a story that was much more than a tale of two lovers on opposite sides; it also told the story of a nation that was coming to grips with a changing face of the American people with the oncoming of those from across the globe. It was in Laurent's intention to recreate the classic story into a darker version and more threatening than the previous stagings -- especially more than the film."I thought the whole thing was terrible. Day-Glo costumes and fake accents!" said Laurents to the Washington Post.
In Tehran, Hollywood delegates consisting of actors and studio producers, from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, arrive to partake a series of workshops and meetings in hopes to retain friendly relations in light of the Iranian goverment's claim of how
badly Hollywood
portrays the country in numerous big screen films. Upon their arrival to meet
with their counterparts, the representatives encountered bittercriticism from the
government, particularly from one of
ambassadors must
apologize for
The group of
representatives include Annette Bening and Alfre Woodard, along with
a
few producers and
academy President Sid Ganis.
Some of the latest
films that sparked sour reactions from the public and
government
include 300
and The Wrestler, more notably on how the film 300 depicted
ancient
Persians along with
Mickey Rourke's character tearing an Iranian flag
during a scene in
the wrestling
drama.
Despite
Shamaqdari's claim and demand, Saeed Leylaz, an
Iranian political analyst,
slightly reduced
the cultural official's comments in an interview with the
Associate Press,
stating that they
must have been aimed for domestic consumption because the
delegation's visit almost certainly was
approved by the government.
"It is not likely
any American, especially Hollywood people, could visit
Iranian government
approval," said Leylaz.
The delegates and
Iranian film-industry figures partook in a series of workshops
and
meetings over the
weekend, which were arranged through
known as a hangout
for actors and directors.
Academy President
Sid Ganis, who was one of the producers of the critically
acclaimed
2006 film,
Akeelah and the Bee, stated in an interview that the group was here
simply
"to
communicate with our fellow filmmakers…an exchange of ideas relating to
the
making and
distributing of movies."
"It's part of the program we have at the
academy," said Ganis, "that took us to
last year, and
we're here now to...to meet, talk to,
express, visit with, understand the
problems of Iranian
filmmakers, and express to them universal problems of
filmmaking
and just generally
exchange ideas."
racist depiction of ethnicities. The
protesters claim to carry on with their protest by picketingthe sponsor
of the comedy play; a
play that the theater described as a "riotous journey through four
waves
of
immigration."
The play takes
place in east
of those moving
into that particular part of the city since the 1600's.
A local playwright,
Hussain Ismail, led the protest this past Friday and told the
BBC
News that the play
offended many different ethnic groups, however, noticed that
the
second half of the
comedy specifically targeted the Bangladeshi community.
"Richard Bean is
making it seem like all Bangladeshis are drug dealers or
user,
muggers and marry
their cousins," said Ismail.
One of the
protestors to take the stage, Keith Kinsella, who is a teacher, expressed
his
displeasure upon
learning of the play's racist
stereotyping.
"I find it
outrageous that a play that could have been written by a raciest year 9 pupil
has
been allowed to be
performed at the National--a publicly funded theater."
The director of the
National Theater, Nicholas Hytner, who also directed this
production,
said that one of
the play's main goal is to satirize most, if
not, all forms of stereotyping.
"It is a boisterous
satire of stereotypes of French, Irish, Jews, Bangladeshis, white
East
End cockneys,
Hampstead liberals and many others," continued Hytner.
"Every stereotype
is placed in the context of its opposite and it clearly sets out
to
demonstrate that
all forms of racism are equally ridiculous."
After very heavy
criticism from protesters, the National Theater went along and
granted
their request for a
debate on the play and its offensive themes. Three events have
been
arranged in order
for these discussions to take place, with the aim to talk over
the
issues in the
comedy. However, the outraged Ismail believes that these discussions
are
nothing more than
just "cosy chats", avoiding any real aggressive questioning from
the
audience.
The play received
mixed reviews from critics. The Sunday Times praised the
production
as a "seriously
hilarious play", "provocative, swaggering, humane and
edgy."
However, Michael
Gove, secretary of Shadow Children, expressed his surprise that
a
"dramatically
appalling" work such as this could be staged in the National
Theater.
"I thought that the
humor was vulgar, raucous, obvious. It made Alf Garnett
seem
sophisticated,"
Gove told BBC Two's Newsnight
Review.
The play will continue to run at the
National Theater until June 30.
The film, The
Combination, focuses on the tensions between gangs of
Australian
Lebanese and white
youths in the western suburbs of
seemingly still
feel the heated rage that took place just, relatively, a short time
ago.
A spokesman for
Greater Union, one of
cancelled
screenings of the film in all four of its
the films,
considerably, after brawls in
Saturday
nights.
"Maintaining the
safety and security of our staff and patros is our main concern
and
priority," Greater
Union general manager Robert Flynn said in a statement.
The Australian FIlm
Syndicate (AFS) managing director, Allanah Zitserman, said that
in
result of Greater
Union's decision to pull the
critically-acclaimed film from theaters,
many who were
involved with the film and its audiences were devastated.
"Although we do not
support the decision by Greater Union to pull the film from its
NSW
sites," said
Zitserman, in a statement, "we respect and understand their
position."
The film takes
place in late 2005 when violence flared between Lebanese
Australiand
and white youths
during ugly race riots at
from the riots, it
follows the a Lebanese Australian man who tries to make a role
model
of himself for his
brother, guiding him away from the dangers of ethnic gang
violence.
"It is a powerful,
critically acclaimed work that has touched a nerve with the
Australian
public and deserves
to be seen by everyone."
Despite its removal
from Greater Union cinema houses in
screened at other
movie chains in
Australian
cities.
One of
incidents of fights
broke out during screenings.
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Entertainment - Takeru V. Maeda International/Entertainment - Takeru V. Maeda
5:00 AM -March 5, 2009
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