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

734-418-4115 option 2
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FOR RENT
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time it’s 
my time 
*books 
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“every 
single bee 
is a simp”

“some days 
I remember 
how 
powerful 
geese are”

puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com

Sudoku Syndication
http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/

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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

