A World For All

Brr! I awoke to a chilly day, no more than in the 20's. I honored Martin Luther King Jr. Day with poems and essays about peace from Collier's Book of Holidays. They're actually intended for United Nations Day, but that's seldom celebrated anymore, and I figured Dr. King did try to bring about peace, so they worked well for this holiday, too.

After I ate breakfast, I went right into dusting. It needed to be done badly. I'd put it off, but the apartment was really nasty after the holidays. The bedroom in particular was horrible. When I finished that, I put up the remaining winter decorations. A few went up with the Christmas stuff, but I usually save most of it for after the holidays. I have three stuffed snowmen whom I have no room for in December, along with a stuffed groundhog for Groundhog's Day and a lot of "snowmen playing winter sports" cardboard hangings I found at the Acme years ago, when I first moved here.

Ran An American Tail while I ate and cleaned. Returned to Don Bluth for this melodramatic 1986 animated film about a little Russian mouse in the late 19th century who immigrates with his family to New York, only to be lost overboard on the way there. When he washes up, he's first befriended by a French pigeon, then takes to the streets of New York to find his family. While he searches for them, the rest of the mice in New York try to figure out a way to get rid of the cats, including notorious Warren T. Rat, who is hiding a secret. Dark story with wonderful music; not my favorite Bluth film, but an interesting discussion on the immigrant experience for older kids (if you can get them past the mice).

Spent the next few hours working on writing. I'm finally getting close to the ending of Babes In WENNLand. Mr. Eldridge shows up with the kids and the toy soldier just as Barnaby cuts Scott's hand and knocks the sword out of it. Mr. Eldridge's toy soldier has enough firepower to knock everyone to the ground...including Barnaby! While the larger soldiers arrest him, the gypsies show up with Maple's sheep, which had been hidden near Barnaby's home Crooked Manor.

At this point, Barnaby's men Rodrigo and Gonzorgo reappear, still tied up as they were in the factor. Also turning up is Mother Gloria (Redmond) Goose herself, wondering what's going on at this Festival. While Lisa and Mr. Eldridge talk about her getting on with her life despite her husband's death, the two goons explain that they were told to steal the sheep and toys and frame Scott, and they took the papers that indicated Betty owned the factory, too. They're in the safe at Crooked Manor.

Finally let off to have Merlin's Magic (Baked) Chicken, sauteed spinach, onions, and mushrooms, and a baked sweet potato for dinner. Watched West Side Story as I ate. This Oscar-winning dramatic musical is an early 60's take on Romeo and Juliet. The Jets are a gang of kids in a New York neighborhood from various older immigrant stock. The Sharks are Puerto Rican and Hispanic kids, new arrivals in the US. They both want the same turf, and will literally fight to keep it. That doesn't stop Tony (Richard Beymer), one of the Jets, for falling for Maria (Natalie Wood), the sister of the head Shark (George Chalikis). While the gangs wage war (and perform some still freakin' amazing dance numbers), the two lovers fall head over heels for one another. Will the gangs' rivalry come between them?

Let's get to the most famous part of this - those dances. Yes, they're still every bit as amazing as everyone has always talked about. Jerome Robbins' stylized choreography speaks about these kids in ways no words ever could. The gorgeous music is some of the finest work of Leonard Bernstein and Stephan Sondheim,, including the hits "Somewhere," "Tonight," "Maria," and "Something's Coming." There's some wonderful performances. Chalikis and Rita Moreno (as his girlfriend) won supporting actor Oscars. Natalie Wood may not be Puerto Rican, but she makes a heartbreaking Maria, and totally nails that final scene with the gun and the gangs.

While the musical aspects are still pretty interesting, some of this hasn't dated that well. The attitude on the cops here, especially towards the Hispanic kids, would get them arrested or start race riots today. The slang, both made-up and real, just sounds silly. And some of the adults are right - there's no reason these kids should be waging war, other than they feel like it. Also, you may have guessed by now that this is not a feel-good musical. As with its inspiration, it ends tragically, and there's several deaths and quite a bit of danced violence. This is probably one of the darkest musicals out there along with Les Miserables. It also shares the same problem as most 60's and 70's Broadway adaptations of being too long. They apparently switched around the order of some of the songs as well.

This really isn't for kids, but for young teens on up, if you like musicals that are either drama or dance-based and can handle the violence and issues, this is one of the finest musicals of the early 60's and still worth seeing.