Capsule Reviews in the Time of Coronavirus (13): West Side Story and the Jack Benny Show

West Side Story

I initially planned to see West Side Story in the theater, but never got my act together (my son arguably was even more excited to see it since he did so separately with friends and greatly enjoyed it). So this past weekend, when it dropped on DisneyPlus, my wife and I watched it and greatly enjoyed it.

I generally don't automatically dismiss “remakes” as some people do, since the original production will always be around to be enjoyed and appreciated. Additionally, in live theater, many musicals and plays are regularly revived and re-staged—and re-imagined—for modern audiences. (In 2021, my wife and I saw the Lincoln Center touring production of “My Fair Lady” on stage when it came to town; and, in 2017, my family and I saw a touring production of “West Side Story,” which offered another point of comparison for me.)

That said, on the face of it, this was a faithful adaptation of the original stage production that also clearly paid homage and respected the original film. While some changes were made (as was done in the original film), the filmmakers reportedly worked to emulate and imitate many of the lighting and color cues of the first film. The end credits even paid homage to the opening credits of the first film. (The music and orchestration also felt very faithful and it was a thrill to hear updated for modern sound systems.)

That said, they still found ways to deepen the characters and heighten the story’s authenticity and emotional impact, mostly through some slight tweaks in the script but especially through Spielberg’s staging and his virtuosity as a filmmaker.

Though the original film “opened up” the story to take advantage of the streets and the gritty urban environment of New York, Spielberg and company take it further, staging “America” outdoors in the streets, “I Feel Pretty” in a Gimbels department store (a store I recalled going to as a young child with my mom!) and “Cool” on an abandoned pier.

The film also strengthens and tweaks Tony and Maria’s relationship—a sequence of them spending the day together in the city both makes them closer but also foreshadows potential pitfalls. Later in the scene, their joining together in a church to promise themselves to each other—a sort of faux wedding—also was reminiscent of the original source material, Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” a connection that my wife felt was more overt in this adaptation. The cast is great, with special kudos to Arian DeBose, whose work I first encountered and made a great impression on me in the AppleTV musical comedy series, Schmigadoon.

Spielberg is at the top of his game (though, let’s face it, he has been for many years now), but he really brings all these skills to bear in the film’s staging, production design and camera work. It’s a shame that this film has underperformed—it’s truly among the best and most heartfelt movies of 2021.

The Jack Benny Show

Years ago—even before the days of CD—shortly after college, I owned an audiocassette of random Jack Benny Radio Show episodes. Back in the day, I listened to it to death (audioshows are particularly great while drawing!). I found them genuinely funny and they were a revelation—sure, I was aware of him when I was growing up, occasionally showing up as a “special guest” on tv, but I was too young to have heard his radio show or watched his tv series first hand (which overlapped for several years). Between those recordings and discovering the transplendent To Be or Not To Be around college, I became a big admirer of Benny.

A few weeks ago, I went on a Benny kick and got to re-affirm my admiration for the comedian. Something triggered my memory of that audiotape (probably hidden away in some box somewhere at home), so I decided to see what I could find online…and, of course, there was plenty on YouTube, even though these were audio radio shows.

One was 11 hours(!) of consecutive radio shows) that I listened to over a couple days, followed by a 5-hour collection on another YouTube channel (strangely, with the musical numbers edited out). I also ended up watching a couple episodes of Benny’s tv show, partly because of the guest stars: one featured Jimmy Stewart and his real-life wife (I read that the Stewarts became Benny’s next-door neighbor comic foils on the series, in the same way actor Ronald Colman was a put-upon Benny neighbor on the radio show.) Another episode guest-starred Humphrey Bogart in what reportedly was his only tv appearance in his career— both appearances were not simple cameo walk-ons, but full episode performances.

If you’ve never listened to the radio show, I highly recommend them—not as nostalgic comedy pieces but because they are genuinely funny. They are also surprisingly meta, obviously pre-dating shows like the Garry Shandling Show that similarly took you behind the scenes of the show within the show.

One of Benny’s great strengths, of course, was surrounding himself with a great cast—I was recently listening to an interview with Barry Sonenfeld on the terrific Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Terrific Podcast (which I also recommend, especially if you love old Hollywood), who noted that the greatest comedians recognize that the greatest laughs are found not in the punch line per se, but in the reaction to the funny line—and Benny was the master of that, milking laughs with his reactions and pauses perfectly.

Anyway, the cast included his real-life wife Mary Livingstone, who eventually retired due to incredible stage fright she developed later in life, which is a shame since she’s truly terrific and has a great voice and delivery; his announcer Don Wilson, who in the shows I recently listened to, transparently tried to work in the name of the show’s sponsor, Jello, wherever he could shoehorn it in; his fizzy and hepcat orchestra leader Phil Harris; Dennis Day, the innocent naive tenor singer who replaced singer Kenny Baker, who reportedly left the show because he was unhappy playing someone so guileless; and, of course, Rochester, his valet.