The Musicals of Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein was a man with many interests. He composed, conducted, and was a pianist. In between conducting and performing engagements he wrote several musica.s and three of them made it to Broadway. They were: On The Town, West Side Story (his most famous), and Wonderful Town.
On The Town (1946) was the first musical Leonard Bernstein wrote. It was based on his ballet Fancy Free. On The Town was choreographed by Jerome Robins, and the lyrics were written by Comden and Green. It is about three sailors who are on twenty-four hour leave in New York City. They want to see all the sights that they can, in the time that they have. However, their plans are offset because they find love in the most unexpected places
On The Town originally premiered in Boston, but due to many problems it closed after ten days. One week later, after some significant revisions, it opened at the Adelphi Theater on Broadway, starring Betty Comden and Adolph Green. On The Town ran for 463 performances on Broadway. It grossed well over two million dollars, with an initial production fee of 150,000 dollars. The national tour that followed the Broadway performances was relatively short. The shows impact was weakened with the end of World War Two because it was about three sailors.
In the spring of 1949 MGM began shooting the film On The Town, starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. MGM complained because On The Town had no hit songs. So once MGM bought Bernstein's approval to change the score, they immediately hired Roger Edens, Judy Garland's voice coach, to write six new songs. Bernstein felt let down by MGM's collaboration with the unknown Roger Edens. The film version of On The Town opened at Radio City Music Hall, in New York City, just in time for the 1949 holiday season. It received many rave reviews. " A happy film," Variety said, "gay with comedy and lilting song numbers." Bernstein was privately appalled by all the changes but he put on the best face he could. He told a reporter that On The Town was, "the best musical Hollywood has ever turned out," even though he was a little disappointed. He added with unusual self-restraint, "because several of his favorite ballads were left out."
Bernstein's most famous musical is probably West Side Story. It all began on January 6, 1949. This is the first entry in Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story log. 'The idea is a modern Romeo and Juliet. Jewish verses Catholic. Juliet is Jewish, and Romeo is Catholic. The plan is set. Street brawls keep the audience stunned and a double death conclusion is just perfect.' The stage is set, so they think. On August 25, 1955 in Beverly Hills, California, the idea is changed. In the process of working on the play, the idea is changed from Jewish verses Catholic to American's versus Puerto Rican's. Romeo and Juliet is postponed because of Bernstein's Candide. The singers for West Side Story were chosen after careful consideration.
Opening night was on August 20, 1957, in Washington DC. Soon, in September of 1957 it hit Broadway. West Side Story ran for 472 performances, and in 1959 began to tour nationally for one year before returning to New York for another 253 performances.
Critics were overwhelmed. Some exclaimed West Side Story as totally different, and others knew how wonderful anything from Bernstein would be. The final product was a burst of color, music, comedy, and pure delightment. All through the rest of Bernstein's life he was praised by young and old alike for this triumph.
It is hard to understand how many people and things brought West Side Story together. Bernstein remembers, "I used to weep when I listened to the cantor, choir, and organ thundering out. It was a big influence on me. I realized many years later, that the 'gang call'[the way the Jets signal to each other in West Side Story] was really like the call of the shofar that I used to hear blown on Rosh Hashanah."
In my opinion, West Side Story is a combination. One can't say it's a comedy without saying it's a tragedy. One can't point out the opera and not the jazz. Nor can one imagine it with one less detail, one less note, or one less dance step. Think of the best music, the best dance, the best lyrics, and the best acting. West Side Story is just that.
Wonderful Town was a musical composed by Leonard Bernstein in 1953. Surprisingly he composed it in less than five weeks. He made it by putting pieces from unsuccessful musicals into it. This makes it something called a trunk musical. What you might see as one small piece can appear in a Broadway musical.
Wonderful Town is a musical that is sometimes ignored by some of Bernstein's critics. It's sometimes recognized as one of his unpopular musicals. When compared to On The Town and (especially) West Side Story, some critics say that it is equally as good and it's a shame that many people don't know about it. After seeing the musical on February 25, Olin Downs wrote:
"Wonderful Town is utterly American in conception and execution from head to toe, is current and characteristic of our people, and not paralleled by any other musical theater, for better or for worse, of the contemporaneous world...This is an opera of which dance is woof and warp, and opera made of dance, prattle, song, and speed..."
On January 19, 1953, Wonderful Town opened in New Haven, but only as a test run. Rosalind Russell was the anchor singer. She surprised the audience and herself by exceeding her standards, in the opinion of Joan Peyser. As a result of that first test run, a ballet scene was dropped, new scenes were written, and a new song was added for Ms. Russell. A week later the show went to the Shubert theater in Boston. It set house records [unavailable at this time]. After that, the show moved for a last two-week pre-Broadway test run, at the Forest theater in Philadelphia. Because of the demand, it ran an extra week. Wonderful Town came to Broadway on February 25, 1953, at the Winter Garden theater. It received eight favorable reviews.
Wonderful Town has sixteen songs, two of which are reprises. Reprises are repetitions of an original theme or verse, and they are usually shorter but have more singers, characters, and/or instruments. The types of music include jazz (Swing), slow music (A Little Bit In Love), and comedy (One Hundred Ways to Lose a Man). Wonderful Town is mainly about what goes on in a town, in what I think is Ohio, since a song is named after it. There are three lead characters; Ruth, Eileen, and Baker. Eileen and Baker are the lovers. Eileen is a woman whom is sought after a lot, because in Darling Eileen, the policemen are trying to woo her. Ruth doesn't seem to have a man, being that she is the one who sings One Hundred Ways to Lose a Man. I think that she also believes in women's rights , because she is saying not to act like an idiot in front of a man. But the whole musical doesn't revolve around Ruth, Baker, and Eileen. It revolves around the whole town. For example, Pass the Football is about a guy who says everything good has happened to him is because he can pass a football. The first song, Christopher Street, is about a tour around the town.
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