What’s more exciting than seeing West Side Story at Lincoln Center?
Nothing. And I’m not exaggerating.
As part of the opening of the Summer HD Festival, the Metropolitan Opera and the Film Society of Lincoln Center screened West Side Story at the Lincoln Center Plaza.
Not only is the 1961 film a classic with an all-star production team (music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and choreography by Jerome Robbins), the story about the rivalry between two teenage street gangs was set right in the neighborhood.
PopSpots, which scouts the exact locations where movies or album jackets were shot, said most of the film was shot at the renewal project on 68th Street between Amsterdam and West End Avenue, right off Lincoln Center where it used to be called San Juan Hill. The playgrounds scenes, including the tragic ending, meanwhile, took place up in Harlem, on 110th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue.
The movie documented a time when what we call Upper West Side now, was both exciting and dangerous. A hood where chic old folks inhabit and young families raise their kids used to be home to numerous jazz joints and various ethnic groups, and any intrusion on one’s turf often resulted in West Side Story-type gang fights. Imagine the strollers and walking frames that are synonymous of the UWS nowadays having to navigate through those!
I’ve passed by the 68th Street location numerous times without paying any attention to it. With nothing much apart from the Lincoln Towers on one end of it and a synagogue on the other, it was among the few blocks that I would have hurried past to get to Lincoln Center when I lived on the Upper West Side. (Yes, those were the glory days of being able to catch a show at Lincoln Center within 10 minutes if I ran.) There is still a certain kind of grittiness to it that contrasts with brightly-lit 72nd Street.
The PopSpots site also has a cool series of pictures that tracks, shot by shot, the various landmarks and skyline featured in the opening of the movie. While much has changed over the years (I didn’t realize that there was only one level at the George Washington Bridge until 1962), a lot has stayed the same, especially downtown. (That’s especially true with many of Bob Dylan’s album shots, which are totally fascinating. )
The Metropolitan Opera is having free outdoor screenings of opera every night until Labour Day, so take advantage of the gorgeous late summer weather to see some great music and bask in the radiance of New York’s cultural hub, Lincoln Center.
P.S. Did you know that West Side Story was supposed to be called East Side Story? And about a totally different rivalry: Between an Irish Catholic family and a Jewish family living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan during Easter-Passover season.
While Manhattan was only mapped in 1609, its history as a place of settlement for people from all over the world has over the years bred many stories about rows among different ethnic groups.
Upcoming movie Brooklyn — based on the novel of the same name by Colm Toibin and with Nick Hornby writing the script — touches upon the conflicts between the Irish and Italians, and features the mesmerizing Saoirse Ronan.
almost friday 