RADA’s Performance Of Romeo And Juliet Not West Side Story:
I generally like to research a time period and present it as it was including costumes, language, furniture, food, cars or other transportation, houses, gardens, manners, etc. I’ve always preferred Shakespeare plays produced in a traditional fashion with sets appropriate for Shakespeare and not some updated or adapted version to try to make the Bard relevants to nowadays for people who don’t like to listen to blank verse and long speeches and who think it might be more entertaining to add music, dance, fireworks, or whatever to the plays.
That’s why I disliked the RADA production of Romeo and Juliet that I saw on my voyage to Germany last June aboard the Queen Mary 2. They decided that Romeo and Juliet should take place in an Hispanic area of a big city and not Renaissance Italy. The characters became Hispanic seeming or thinking. Mexican music was added along with dances. The cast didn’t pay attention to the fact that Romeo and Juliet were supposed to be children of the aristocracy and dressed them in tatters. Most of the audience walked out before the end of the play, and I can see why.
I know West Side Story was inspired by Romeo and Juliet, but inspired isn’t the same as producing an actual Shakespeare play. West Side Story it had its own story, its own characters, and its own music. It wasn’t paraphrasing Shakespeare, cutting out lines, or setting something that should have taken place in Verona, Italy in New York City. This show was.
I generally like to research a time period and present it as it was including costumes, language, furniture, food, cars or other transportation, houses, gardens, manners, etc. I’ve always preferred Shakespeare plays produced in a traditional fashion with sets appropriate for Shakespeare and not some updated or adapted version to try to make the Bard relevants to nowadays for people who don’t like to listen to blank verse and long speeches and who think it might be more entertaining to add music, dance, fireworks, or whatever to the plays.
That’s why I disliked the RADA production of Romeo and Juliet that I saw on my voyage to Germany last June aboard the Queen Mary 2. They decided that Romeo and Juliet should take place in an Hispanic area of a big city and not Renaissance Italy. The characters became Hispanic seeming or thinking. Mexican music was added along with dances. The cast didn’t pay attention to the fact that Romeo and Juliet were supposed to be children of the aristocracy and dressed them in tatters. Most of the audience walked out before the end of the play, and I can see why.
I know West Side Story was inspired by Romeo and Juliet, but inspired isn’t the same as producing an actual Shakespeare play. West Side Story it had its own story, its own characters, and its own music. It wasn’t paraphrasing Shakespeare, cutting out lines, or setting something that should have taken place in Verona, Italy in New York City. This show was.
