All the Tonys and Marias
Of all the marvelous songs in the marvelous “West Side Story,” perhaps the most famous is “Maria.” Although it’s a great great song, it’s not my absolute favorite from the show, although I’d be hard-pressed to name my favorite because there are so many contenders.
“Maria” is not an easy song to sing, either. I’ve seen good singers struggle with it. Some of them are opera singers, who like to give “Maria” a go and often sound very beautiful.
But to me the greatest performer of the song was the original, Larry Kert. You may never have heard of him because they deemed him too old for the movie and instead chose (the to me forgettable) Richard Beymer, who had to be dubbed.
Fortunately, through the magic of YouTube, we have a film of the leads from the original stage version, although this was apparently made about ten years later, in 1967. I won’t bore you once again with why I almost always prefer stage musicals to movie versions, but the staged “West Side Story” certainly falls into that group, although the movie version is one of the better efforts at the genre.
Here you see Kert and Carol Lawrence, the original Maria. First you will see Kert singing “Maria” and then the duet “Tonight.” Give him a moment, just wait till he gets to his upper register. I like this version not only because the original cast album was the one I knew in childhood, but because I think his less-operatic tone is both beautiful and more believable as Tony (unfortunately, the sound quality of the clip is a tiny bit funky):
Here’s Richard Beymer lip syncing in the movie. The dubbing is done pretty well,, but it still bothers me. Dubbing never looks quite right; the breath and force doesn’t match the sound somehow. A lot of people love this version, though, so I’m presenting it to you:
Here’s an exceedingly beautiful concert operatic version by Julian Ovenden. I prefer Kert, but I very much admire this, too. What a tone! I think it’s the best operatic version I’ve found so far:
My favorite version is Victor Borge and Dean Martin 🙂 3:37 for “Maria,” but start at the beginning if you’re not fluent in phonetic punctuation 😉
https://youtu.be/lQ91SVKryYU
There will never again be a stage show like Starlight Express. We saw it in London in the Victoria Theater which had been partly gutted and a roller skate track laid all around the theater at shoulder height. There was a second track at balcony level and a great bridge on stage to connect them, The actors all were on roller skates. It was absolutely incredible. We also saw Evita and Cats in London but Starlight was the best. The voice on that audio is the actor we saw. He is black and was incredible;.
This is the actor we saw. He is incredible.
Julian Ovenden played the son in the drama series, Foyle’s War. Who knew he could sing! And so beautifully.
Yeah I had no idea Julian Ovenden was a singer. I first saw him on Foyle’s War (a really good show still shown on some PBS stations) and he was also on Downton Abbey. Wikipedia tells me he’s a rather accomplished singer and stage musical performer.
Kert is telling you about the love he has met, while to other two are singing an ode to a name. Much more emotion in his delivery: “… I -just- met a girl named Maria….”
Another singer who was a good actor was Jerry Orbach. He was beloved by NY cops because his portrayal was so perfect.
Yes, Mr. Bernstein’s effort produced numbers that are quite difficult to sing. They don’t lie well in the voice.
At some point, I understand, he complained that people didn’t sing his stuff as often as Mr. Gershwin’s, not even in concert; and certainly not just regular people, off-the-cuff.
I thought that with all his experience he’d know why his numbers aren’t “popular,” like Mr. Gershwin’s or Mr. Porter’s. It’s simply not very singable, that’s why.
Starlight still playing in Germany in 2011, 27 years after I saw it in London.
Sorry, but I can’t help it. This really sounds like the 1984 London version we saw.
I have a different take. Our high school drama department did an old standard every year. Camelot, Showboat, West Side Story, Sound of Music, etc. There was a lot of talent in those kids.
A famous singer wondering if he’ll be a good father is one thing. A late adolescent wondering is another.
Kert is telling you about the love he has met, while to other two are singing an ode to a name.
Ironically, Kert had no amatory interest in women. Neither did the author or the lyricist of the original production. The director and choreographer had hardly any. Such interests were limited to Leonard Bernstein (on alternate weeks) and the producers.
Ironically, Kert had no amatory interest in women>>> Ok, so it’s not just me. I don’t know if Kert was a gay man, but I was getting a very strong vibe that he was and that made the acting seem more like obvious acting. Still an enjoyable performance and many thanks, Neo, for posting such interesting bits from the arts.
I sing, and I love singing Maria! And I’m not gay so there’s no believable romance in the performance, lol, but what I love about the song is where the melodic intervals hit and the keys change.
I agree with neo that her two picks are superb renditions of Maria.
I also agree with LJ that “Kert is telling you about the love he has met, while to other two are singing an ode to a name.” But I think it’s the visual of his acting that achieves that effect.
As for myself, Andy Williams 1967 “Maria” is… IMO unmatched.
I suspect that Bernstein’s “Maria” was inspired by Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria” and in support of that speculation I offer; Russell Watson`s performance of Ave Maria at Bridgewater 2002
1. Bernstein and Sondheim have been dragooned by opera houses around the world to dispel the subscriber-repelling miasma that coalesces around productions of “modern” atonal music, and to appeal to “the masses”. It’s supposed to be hard to sing, a cut above. It’s like Gershwin’s upscale quoting of jazz “vernacular” in his classical works. Which leads to:
2. Let’s not forget how precious/pretensious West Side Story was back in the 60s – hard to see then because its assumptions dovetailed with white liberal beliefs of the time. I am surprised that West Side Story even gets produced in this “woke” decade.
3. Does not pay to compare books, stage shows, and movies. Each one is its own medium. The best example of that for me is “Little Shop of Horrors” – which started as an indie film by Roger Corman, and was adapted into a firecracker of a musical that regularly threated to blow the roof off its tiny off-off-Broadway theater. Then the musical was successfully (IMHO) adapted into a film directed by Muppets pupeteer Frank Oz, who preserved the manic energy in that tiny theater while opening up the mise en scene to cinematic possibilities.
“Little Shop of Horrors” is another favorite. The task of creating a story with music is the history of opera, which I also love. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s genius is just amazing to me. Who would think of a musical about trains with the performers all on roller skates?
Let’s not forget how precious/pretensious West Side Story was back in the 60s – hard to see then because its assumptions dovetailed with white liberal beliefs of the time.
Let’s forget it because it isn’t true.
prefer the broadway version over the movie? You must be kidding. In the stage version they sing Officer Krupke AFTER Riff is killed (maybe it’s more bitterly delivered, but it’s ludicrous they’d be cutting up after their leader has been killed) and Cool BEFORE the rumble (by Riff, not Ice). In fact, I believe Ice, the coolest and best role in the movie, isn’t even IN the stage version! There’s a lot more to hate about the stage version, those 2 things stick out the worst. The only criticism of the movie I have is the way it’s structured there isn’t hardly a song in the 3rd act of the movie (A Boy Like That/I Have a Love is the last one? I forget.) and a song when Tony is killed would have been good, they should have added one for the film as they often to for dramatic purposes. Also, the stage version is usually broadly acted (not that the movie is completely realistic) and that campy, over-broad style seems to cheapen real tragedy, at least by my lights. I prefer the more realistic acting of the movies to the high-school emoting and delivery to the back rows of the stage.
Art Deco:
Actually, although you are correct about the gayness of quite a few people connected with West Side Story (including Kert), you have somewhat mischaracterized Jerome Robbins, the director/choreographer who shaped the entire enterprise.
Jerome Robbins had one of the most complex and active love/sex lives of anyone I’ve ever read about. Quite the extraordinary guy, and apparently tremendously difficult as a director but tremendously charismatic in private life, he not only was bisexual but seriously bisexual in that he had meaningful, long-lasting love affairs (not just sexual affairs) with many women and many men. I read a very lengthy biography of Robbins and decided he defies classification in this regard. “Bisexual” doesn’t exactly cover it, either. In a previous post I wrote this about Robbins:
My favorite song in West Side Story is ‘America’.