6 — Thursday, March 12, 2020
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
WHISPER
SUBMIT A
WHISPER
By Michael Paleos
©2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
03/12/20
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
03/12/20
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Thursday, March 12, 2020
ACROSS
1 Soft end of the
Mohs scale
5 Old Toyota
models
10 Order to go
14 Squiggly lines
in the funnies,
maybe
15 Hot day refuge
16 “Him __?”: love
triangle ultimatum
17 First anniversary
gift for a
zookeeper?
19 Like eyes “you
can’t hide,” in an
Eagles song
20 Ring loudly
21 It can spice
things up
23 Prescription
specs
26 2000 Gere title
role
28 Gere, for one
29 Super Mario
Galaxy consoles
30 Japanese ice
cream flavor
32 “It’s __ good”
33 Livid
34 Lots and lots
37 Race in place
38 10th anniversary
gift for a
musician?
40 Wire-concealing
garment, perhaps
41 Least
encumbered
43 Musical work
44 “A lie that makes
us realize truth,”
per Picasso
45 Adds insult to
injury
47 Hair gel squirt
48 Bow ties, e.g.
50 The Spartans of
the NCAA
51 “Well, I’ll be!”
52 Totally jazzed
54 Like many 45
records
56 Jordanian queen
dowager
57 50th anniversary
gift for a fast-food
worker?
62 Stop discussing
63 Hail
64 Passion
65 __ pool
66 __ pool
67 Biblical spot
DOWN
1 Cover
2 Nicole’s “Cold
Mountain” role
3 Hack
4 Brunch choice
5 “¿Cómo __?”
6 Kids
7 “Macbeth” role
8 “Swan Lake”
princess
9 Blood fluids
10 Comforted
11 15th anniversary
gift for a golfer?
12 Palermo pal
13 Barbershop part
18 In medias __
22 Relay sticks
23 Middle-earth
figure
24 Gulf ship
25 25th anniversary
gift for a chef?
27 Fiery candies
30 South side?
31 Like a shutout
33 “I’m not gonna
sugarcoat this”
35 Screen legend
Flynn
36 Failed to act
39 Long-outlawed
smoking
establishment
42 Greek Muse of
music
46 Oil, for many
47 Look-up aid
48 Herbal
Essences maker,
for short
49 64-Across, at La
Scala
51 Serengeti
herbivore
53 Fleece-lined
footwear brand
55 Not duped by
58 Two-time Emmy-
winning actress
__ Grant
59 OMG part
60 67-Across outcast
61 Number of
Canadian
provinces
CLASSIFIEDS
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*books
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geese are”
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Sudoku Syndication
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SUDOKU
TV REVIEW
COMMUNITY CULTURE COLUMN
‘Babylon Berlin’ issues
a dire warning to the U.S.
Revived ‘West Side Story’
puts new spin on ’50s classic
It’s finally happening. Americans at large are
starting to realize that not all good television
and cinema has to be in the English language. In
this peculiar moment of our history, critics and
audience members are finally starting to give
notice to ”Babylon Berlin.”
The show is a proper mystery noir in all
the right ways. “Babylon Berlin” centers on
the gruff, witty Gereon Rath (Volker Brunch,
“Jerks”), a male detective who tries to navigate
the gritty world of Berlin during the Weimar
Era. With his accomplice, Charlotte Ritter (Liv
Lisa Fries, “Prélude”), the two fight to bring the
city’s most insidious murderers to justice. Their
misadventures often put them in the crossfire
between the Underworld and the Communists,
and directly in the path of Nazis, who are trying
to bring down the democratic government.
Season three mainly focuses on the death of
Betty Winter Natalia Mateo, a talented actress
murdered on an expensive set by a man described
by the press as “Das Phantom.” Gereon and
Charlotte desperately try to fight the Nazis within
the ranks of the police department itself, some of
whom are responsible for the sinister murder at
the shocking conclusion of season two. As Gereon
tries to bring all murders to justice, his love life
continuously falls apart, and his sanity slips away.
Much like Gereon’s internal mood, the city itself is
leaning closer and closer to complete insanity: All
these plot threads come to fruition in an explosive
season finale, culminating in the stock market
crash of 1929.
One of the greatest aspects of the show is
the world itself. The world of “Babylon Berlin”
is exceptional in embodying the plethora of
contradictions of Weimar Berlin. We see the
opulence of the rich combined with the misery of
the poor, Nazi boy scouts and genderqueer clubs,
vast improvements in technology coupled with
blatant racism and sexism. Season three richly
expands the multiplicitous world of Berlin beyond
the confines of seasons one and two. Characters
who served minor roles in previous seasons are
finally given the depth and time they deserve.
The show masterfully balances these new wild
contradictions. In one moment, we empathize
with a gay character struggling to navigate a
hostile world. In the next moment, we see young,
disenfranchised boys get enthralled by the
community that Nazism provides.
In all, the creators show that this time period
is not dissimilar to our own. With the rise of
radicalism and authoritarianism in the west,
“Babylon Berlin” is a refreshingly relevant
historical retelling. Since we know what will
happen to Germany in the near future of the show,
it’s a not-so-subtle warning that modern society
is on the same path to make the same mistakes.
The rampant rise of radicalism as a solution to
the chaos of modern democracy is a consistent
motif in this world. “Good police officers don’t
take sides,” Gereon tells his nemesis in the final
moments of the season. Season three of “Babylon
Berlin” is the most explosive season to date. Not
only is it absolutely thrilling, but the world of
“Babylon Berlin” itself stands as a dire warning
about society, for Germany and the United States.
Is it possible to revive a staple of the Broadway
repertoire while staying true to the original
production? And if not, should revivals instead
strive to forge new ground? Is there a point at
which a revival is too groundbreaking to be a
revival, at which the revival must be understood
as an entirely new creative product?
Over the past month, reviews of the current
Broadway revival of “West Side Story” have
fractured
along
these
lines.
Some
have
questioned the video projections, atypical
staging and musical omissions that form much
of this new work; others have spoken of the
story’s revitalization thanks to these new
creative decisions.
The
recent
production
has
also
faced
controversy over the casting of Amar Ramasar,
who was removed and reinstated at the New
York City Ballet over allegations of sexual
misconduct. Protesters had been outside the
theater during early performances of the work,
which opened on Feb. 6. I saw no protesters at a
performance that I attended this past Saturday.
This was not the first revival in recent years to
take great liberties in reinterpreting a previous
classic. 2019 saw a critically successful revival
of “Oklahoma!,” a revival also dependent on
limited scenery, wildly different orchestrations
and live video projection.
Yet in the “West Side Story” revival, I couldn’t
help but feel that the projections and set design
distracted from the Romeo and Juliet aspect
of the story. The fantastical choreography that
constituted much of the violence in the movie
was instead presented literally and graphically
magnified by the projections.
The different openings to these two versions
of the show highlight the basic premises that
have changed. In the movie, the battle between
the Jets and the Sharks takes place against a
light musical backdrop — the famous snapping at
the beginning of the movie turning into precise
underscoring, specific musical hits timed to
match with the opening and closing of fists in
an unbelievable, overly-choreographed manner.
In this revival, the Jets and Sharks stand
motionless at the front of the stage throughout
the opening number. The only thing that moves
is the camera, as the barely suppressed rage of
the Jets and Sharks is projected on the back
wall at fifty-foot dimensions. There was nothing
light or remotely unbelievable about this scene.
This is not to say that director Ivan van
Hove hasn’t added much to the audience’s
understanding of the story. And this is not to
say that the original “West Side Story” was not
problematic in its own right.
The movie’s casting of Latinx characters,
for example, is frequently cited as an example
of exactly what was wrong with 20th-century
Hollywood. And questions over the show’s
reliance on racial and gender stereotypes have
long surrounded critical commentary on the
work.
But despite its controversies, the original
“West Side Story” aspires to be little more than a
20th-century “Romeo and Juliet.” It is a fragile
love story in the midst of a race-defined feud, a
story of a beautiful love-turned-tragedy.
However, as I watched the revival, I couldn’t
help but question whether this fundamental
premise had been altered. Van Hove has spoken
about how this revival was meant to reflect our
current cultural and political divisions, to draw
out the conflicts that have always existed under
the work’s surface.
Van Hove reaches for such large concepts —
police brutality, sexual violence, racial conflict
— that it feels as though Tony and Maria’s
demise is merely a side story. I entered the
theater knowing that (spoiler alert) they were
going to fall in love and Tony was going to be
killed. There was no suspension of disbelief, no
suggestion that perhaps Tony and Maria might
elope unscathed.
When asked about the show’s originality,
Scott Rudin, one of the show’s producers, said
Van Hove “doesn’t direct revivals like they’re
revivals. Because to him, they’re not... They’re
brand-new to him.” And this led me back to my
original question about originality. At what point
could this no longer be considered a revival?
Could it ever be understood as something new,
a new work of theater based on source material
called “West Side Story”?
It’s not as though the creativity of the work’s
creators hasn’t already come under question.
Many classical music aficionados have spoken
of
the
resemblance
between
Bernstein’s
“Somewhere” and the second movement of
Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 5” (the
“Emperor” concerto) and/or Tchaikovsky’s
“Swan Lake.”
SETTLER
JOSHUA THOMAS
Daily Arts Writer
SAMMY SUSSMAN
Daily Community Culture Columnist
Read more online at
michigandaily.com