W hen Steven Spielberg contacted this new playwright and you may screenwriter Tony Kushner concerning chances of remaking West Front Story inside the 2014, Kushner was first concerned for some causes. For example, he had impossibly higher boots to fill: the brand new songs, established in 1957 from the aesthetic titans-director-choreographer Jerome Robbins, composer Leonard Bernstein, lyricist Steven Sondheim and publisher Arthur Laurents-try a respected antique and you can a pillar of 20th millennium Western art. At the same time, there are many regions of brand new musical that appear honestly outdated to a more youthful, a lot more culturally conscious listeners. Of numerous debates has actually exploded over the years concerning the musical’s brownface roots and cartoonish depictions of their Puerto Rican characters. A year ago, this new Puerto Rican blogger Carina del Valle Schorske expected the newest tunes to-be retired inside a vermont Moments section entitled “Let ‘West Side Story’ and its own Stereotypes Pass away.”

So when Kushner accessible to create the fresh new screenplay, he had been confronted with a perilous controlling work: to preserve the musical’s pure perfection while you are improving up on the shortcomings. Up to now, critics and you may audience have considered their work successful. The movie, and therefore opens up in Bloomington IN sugar baby the theaters for the Dec. ten, already is during the good 95% Fresh score on Bad Tomatoes; with time, critic Stephanie Zacharek penned: “I experienced no clue I wanted so it Western Front side Facts until We watched they. This, maybe, is the better sort of film, the fresh new covert completion which was concealing within the basic sight most of the with each other.”

Exactly how did Kushner display such a massive feat? The answer lies in the fresh Angels regarding The united states playwright’s personal rigor and his awesome emphasis on collaboration. Leia mais