Several weeks ago, I did what I usually do at the beginning of another season in Rehoboth. I strolled the streets, saying hello to returning shopkeepers, inquiring as to their well-being, tactfully asking after their Significant Other [hoping that theyre still together and/or Ive got the right name], and expressing my excitement about the anticipated wave of visitors. I really like the tourist season in Rehoboth, although I know its not a very popular point of view.
This little private Getting-Ready-for-the-New-Season ritual also gives me an opportunity to explore some of the new shops and to chat with our more recent arrivals. This year, I met Jim Snyder at Studio: Workshops and Gallery [47 Baltimore Avenue], right down the street from the CAMP office. He has a very interesting and pleasing collection of reasonably priced craft work, including fiber art, watercolor, painted fabric, marbleized paperwork, faux finish furniture and calligraphy. Jim will be hosting art classes in all these media during July and August for a small fee and a little bit more for materials. Class schedules are available at the store.
Whats all this got to do with a movie review, you ask? Well, there I was, chatting with Jim about how Ive always wanted to learn how to paint on fabric when, in an appalling lack of good manners, I grabbed his arm, glanced frantically at the ceiling and blurted out, "Wait! Is that a CD? Is it yours? Who is that singing??" So much for art. "Thats Little Richard," said Jim. I gasped, "Singing I Feel Pretty? " Jim smiled kindly. "You mean youve never heard this CD? Are you familiar with an old musical called, "West Side Story?," he asked.
Am I familiar? Am I familiar?? That was the first Broadway show I had ever seen! Larry Kent, Carol Lawrence, Chita Rivera and Russ Tamblyn were young, vibrant and talented, and Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim had written a score that gave words to the very secret sadness that lived in my melodramatic, teenage Lesbian heart: "I have a love and thats all that I have...Theres a place for us, a time and space for us...Tonight, tonight wont be just any night..." And one of the members of the Jets was a baby dyke, of that I was convinced! I had vowed [and had actually kept it, too!] that I would NEVER see the movie because it would NEVER be as good as the play!
I smiled with tears in my eyes and said, "I still remember all the words! Wanna hear?" Jim jumped up quickly and said politely through his tight smile, "Well, then I KNOW youll be interested in the rest of this CD. Its been out for a while..." His voice trailed off as he disappeared somewhere, returning with the case in hand. One hour later, I purchased my own copy.
The Songs of West Side Story is a compilation conceived and produced by David Pack with some portion of the royalties being donated to three music education programs, two of them bearing Uncle Lennys name. My personal favorites were: "Somethings Coming," by All 4 One, "Tonight," by Kenny Loggins and Wynonna, "Somewhere," by Aretha Franklin, "America," by Natalie Cole, Patti Labelle and Sheila E., "One Hand, One Heart," by Tevin Campbell, "I Have a Love," by Trisha Yearwood, the reprise of "Somewhere," by Phil Collins, Selenas recording of "A Boy Like That," completed only three weeks before her death and the aforementioned Little Richard ["Have you met my good friend Ricardo...the craziest boy on the block?"] selection. But the number that REALLY got me going, the number that REALLY prompted this review, was "Cool," by Patti Austin, Mervyn Warren and Bruce Hornsby. Wasnt that the number that had showcased my little dykelette? I had to find out! I rented the video.
The 1961 Academy Award winner for Best Film, Direction and Cinematography is a treat for the eyes. It contains incredibly beautiful aerial shots of lower Manhattan and most of the wonderfully creative choreography is staged on the streets, not on sets. Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood are not quite suited for their roles as Tony and Maria, with Beymer looking somewhat awkward and uncomfortable much of the time and Wood looking mostly overdone in her brown ethnic pancake and dreadful accent. The dubbed lead voices are pleasant enough, although they lack a particular emotional sparkle. Beymer sounds almost monotone at times, and Wood is occasionally out of synch. Besides, theres just no magic between them.
The supporting players fair better. George Chakiris, also looking a little silly in dark pancake, does a nice job with his low-key performance of the proud, strong-and-silent type, Bernardo. Russ Tamblyn is as superb a dancer as he was in his original stage performance and does a nice job with the dialogue as well. I dont remember his singing in the show but if this was his voice in the movie, it should have been dubbed. Rita Moreno as Anita won an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress and deserves every gold ounce of the little statue. She is a passionate singer, a graceful, energetic dancer, and frequently provides comic relief with her biting commentary on the ethnic war between her compadres and her new "American" neighbors. In short, she sings, dances, and acts circles around the rest and does it all in an authentic accent and without phony makeup!
Remember the musical number recorded by Patti Austin that inspired this jog down Memory Lane? Well, guess who doesnt sing a single song in the entire movie and, I suspect, didnt warble even a single note in the Broadway show? You got it. The characters name is Anybodys, played with spunk and spark by Susan Oakes. Her genderless name amuses me [its anybodys guess if its a boy or a girl] and offends me [ since shes really a "nobody," rejected by both the boys gang and the girls gang] all at the same time. The character has short-cropped hair, a small, lithe, jock-dyke build and wears nothing but a tattered tee-shirt and tight, tight jeanseven to the dance. Anybodys is a loyal friend, attempting to save Tony from harm and succeeding in her mission on at least one occasion. She gets sexist, homophobic shit from everyone: "Go wear a shirt!"; "Whats the freak know about Tony?"; "How else will she get a guy to touch her?" is the retort to her offer to fight with the gang. Eventually, she wins the recognition and grudging admiration of one Jet member, who tells her, "You done good, buddy-boy." Ah, the supreme compliment! Shes a boy!! Anbodys best line in the movie is her announcement, "I aint never gonna get married!" No wonder she caught my attention in 1950 some-odd!
I dont think Anybodys character, as I now see it, is the role model of my dreams. I guess that most theater buffs and movie goers of the late 50s and early 60s saw her as a tomboy, a young girl who was a bit confused about her transition to womanhood, and not as the baby dyke I saw. But I had watched her through the eyes of a young teenager who was searching for the courage to make choices that flew in the face of the conventional wisdom of the times... just as Anybodys seemed to and just as Tony and Maria had. Within the context of some of the best music, lyrics and choreography ever presented on stage and screen, there still exists a story of personal courage and love, emotions that transcend time, place, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Thats worth the price of a rental right there. And dont forget the tissues.
Marge Tolchin is a film critic "wannabe" who frequents movie houses in both Washington, D.C. and Rehoboth Beach in search of positive gay and lesbian images.
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6/27/97 Issue. Copyright 1997 by CAMP Rehoboth, Inc. All rights reserved.