酒馆音乐剧板块《曲外之音》，跟璐璐和英国资深音乐剧人Oliver一起品名音乐剧背后的故事，让高雅艺术触手可得~公号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】可以索要英语全文稿哦~
Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Sound of Musicals. 欢迎回来【曲外之音】.
Hi Oliver.
Hello.
So what are we gonna talk about today? In the very first interview I had with you, you talked about your theater groups have put on quite a few musicals, and you mentioned Les Misérables, but what else?
One of my earliest musicals that I had a speaking part in, not a lead role, but I was on stage a lot, I was talking. It was West Side Story.
Okay, based on our conversations before, you don't really strike me as someone who would be in West Side Story, like essentially a gangster story, right？
It is basically, yes, it's a story about two gangs in New York fighting for control of their neighborhood who is the top gang.
West Side Story is one of those things I'm not sure if it's very popular among Chinese audience, but if people in English speaking countries, if they know anything about musical theater, they have at least heard of it.
Yes, I'm not sure how many people would say it's their favorite, but most people have heard of it, yes, either the musical or the two movies that were made of it.
The latest movie version of West Side Story was released only last year 2021 by Spielberg.
Yes, it came out last year. I haven't seen it but the reviews are quite positive. Online reviews seem to like the movie.
I checked on Rotten Tomatoes, they’re getting as high as 93% which is amazing.
That is quite good.
I have to admit I only watched some of it, but the whole cinematography how they shot it looked amazing, definitely have to find a time to watch the entire thing, little bit about the background. So it debuted in the 1950s, right？
Yes, in 1957 is when it opened, and it did quite well, lots of people did enjoy it. They went to see it and they had about 1,000 shows within 3 years, so it did very well for itself.
And I think one of the things that made Wide Side Story really popular or special is not just the gang stories, but it's also that is based on a Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet.
Yes, so the background and sort of the under story, the story itself really is based on Romeo and Juliet this idea of two gangs fighting in a city; and then a boy from one gang, a girl from the other fall in love, and everything that happens between them.
It's basically modern-day Romeo and Juliet set in New York.
Yes, that is exactly it is, it's modern setting for Romeo and Juliet. And there are different take in some areas, some things are a little different, but overall the story is quite similar I think to Romeo and Juliet.
It's just instead of rival families, these are rival gangs, but I suppose it's the equivalent of rival families.
It is yes, when Romeo and Juliet was set, it was family gangs but not everybody in the family was actually related. You could be in somebody's family but not their brother, their cousin, anything like that. They could be your friend.
The Clan, like the clan culture, like a family clan.
Yes, exactly. So you could be friends of the family fighting with them, but not actually in the family.
All right. So, let me give you that impossible task again of giving us a very, very brief summary of the plot. ...
公号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】可以索要英语全文稿哦~