If you’ve sensed something slightly off-key in the last 48 hours, something that you can’t quite put a jazz square on, you might be picking up on the discord making its way through the musical theater fandom.
It happened sometime on Wednesday, the news that Fox had unlocked the rights to “West Side Story” for a possible remake reached the ears of musical theater dork.
That alone could start a fury of a theater dork storm, especially with the Sondheim of it all, but I haven’t even gotten to the most shocking part—the director interested in mounting a remake is Steven Spielberg.
Since then it’s been a steadily growing stream of mixed, confused, and downright outraged reactions.
Personally, I’m intrigued, and choosing to focus on the Steven Spielberg that created such classics as “E.T.”, “Indiana Jones”, “Schindler’s List”, “Jaws”, “Saving Private Ryan”, “War Horse”, and I’ll even throw “Jurassic Park” a bone.
I’m hoping that’s the guy who’s interested in mounting a re-imaging of this beloved musical, and not the Steven Spielberg who brought us “Indiana Jones 4 (and now apparently 5)”, “Transformers 2, 3,…”, and basically every other horrible sequel he’s brought to the screen.
So for now, I’m staying optimistic. This could be a great thing for the modern movie musical, and wonderful next chapter for “West Side Story.”
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EW: ‘West Side Story’: Why a Steven Spielberg remake could work
…bi-daily smile…
