West Side Story (1961)

Susan Kohner but she would have had to be dubbed like Natalie was.

Speaking of dubbing, the movie would have been much improved if they’d had a better match to Natalie Wood’s voice. Marni Nixon was a terrible choice.

Was Lesley Ann Warren considered? She could sing

Julie Andrews.

I don't want to be in America.

Imogene Coca did a great imitation of a crazy Puerto Rican.

Richard Beymer never thought any of his performances were good. He especially thought he sucked in West Side Story. He was getting the big buildup but his career basically went nowhere due to his insecurity about his talent.

Most of the male actors were gay. Jerry Robbins must had a worn casting couch.

Beymer in the shower...

[quote]The movie would have been much improved if they’d had a better match to Natalie Wood’s voice. Marni Nixon was a terrible choice.

I have to disagree strongly. If you listen to Natalie's pre-recordings of the songs, the basic timbre of her voice is quite similar to Marni's, except of course the technique and the quality of the sound are nowhere near as good and were frankly unacceptable to the creatives.

A Latina unknown. I have always found Natalie Wood overrated. I love Richard Beymar.

[quote]A Latina unknown. I have always found Natalie Wood overrated. I love Richard Beymar.

And the vast majority of opinion on the casting of those two roles in that movie is exactly the opposite of yours.

And, since you love him so much, you should spell his name right: It's Beymer.

None of the Jets looked like gang members. They looked like the 6 pm crowd at the Stonewall. Not all of West Side Story has aged gracefully, but its spectacular dancing sure has.

Rita as Maria Chita as Anita

When Tony dies I still well up.

It’s a musical. We forgive a ton when we have to pretend people just burst out into song and dance

[Quote] When Tony dies I still well up.

Me too. Very effectively done in the movie

Audrey Hepburn was chosen but was pregnant.

I love Audrey but just no.

Audrey Hepburn was not "chosen" for the movie of WEST SIDE STORY, though I think her name was actually brought up, incredible as that may seem to us today. Aside from everything else, she would have been 31 at the time of the filming but already looked considerably older.

Rita was also up for the Broadway cast as Maria but she got cold feet. She said she was afraid of Jerry Robbins. I guess she got over it.

Julie Andrews would have been the ideal Maria. She could have really sung the high notes, even for "A Boy Like That." Plus, no one could have enunciated "I Feel Pretty " quite like she could have.

Susan Watson

The 2021 version was far superior to the 1961 version.

Eydie Gorme. Thread closed....

R12 No way. Rita looked 40 in WSS and would have never been believable as a quasi teenager. In fact, she even looks old for Anita. Same for Chita, they were both burdened with the Celeste Holm curse.

A question for those in the know. Is Beymer gay? Who else was gay in the cast, besides George Chakiris?

Spielberg totally botched the ending. The visuals sucked.

Elizabeth Taylor

The question R25 is, "Who wasn't?"

I haven't seen so much gay ass since Jane Russell did her pool number.

I'm with R9. A complete unknown would have been good. Anyone besides Natalie Wood and her rolling R's. But in those days "unknowns" weren't given starring roles in big Hollywood pictures, at least none that I can think of.

Natalie wood was fantastic in the movie. STFU

Natalie was the star name. Unless they got a star name for Tony, there's no way they could cast an unknown. Maybe they could have cast Nancy Kwan. She was foreign, that usually sufficed...

UA and Mirisch wouldn't have gitten behind the film if they hadn't had a star name for box office purposes.

[quote] Maybe they could have cast Nancy Kwan.

Fuck that shit!

Because I'm a NYC history nerd, the background in the great film still R11 posted got me googling.

RC Church of St Matthew - 215 West 67th Street New York, N.Y. 10023 The parish of St. Matthew was established on September 21, 1902, and on that same day Mass was said for about 50 people in the temporary rectory at 166 West 65th Street, by Rev. Patrick F. Maughan, the priest appointed to organize the new parish. A basement hall served as a chapel until November 29, 1903, when the first Mass was said in the new church on West 67th Street, between Amsterdam and West End Avenues. As designed by John J. Deery, the very plain, Gothic-style church seated between 600 and 700 persons. The cost of the building was less than $10,000 and the site cost $16,500.

In October 1906, lots behind the church were purchased so that a rectory could be built, and the house was completed on May 1, 1907. On September 15, 1911, a neighboring Baptist church was purchased as the nucleus of a parochial school. It was instead turned into a hall for the various societies and also served as a Sunday-school. By the 1910s, the parish had about 6000 members, about half of whom were Italians.

In the mid-1950s, the neighborhood was chosen as the future site of what is known today as the Lincoln center for the Performing Arts. Robert Moses, chairman of the Mayor's Committee on Slum Clearance, drew up plans for a proposed "City within a city" that would include the music and arts center, a hotel, an office center, a shopping zone, five commercial theatres, a Manhattan campus for Fordham University, and 4,120 modern apartments to rent at an average of $47.50 a room. The project called for the demolition of all but a half dozen buildings in an area of eighteen blocks north and west of the Coliseum at Columbus Circle. St. Michael's Church would be relocated to the northwest corner of Sixty-sixth Street and Amsterdam Avenue, where a 600-seat church, rectory, school and convent would be built. On November 26, 1957, the $205,000,000 Lincoln Square Slum Clearance and Redevelopment Project was unanimously approved by the Board of Estimates and efforts began to relocate 6,500 families and several hundred businesses within the area. St. Matthew's Church withdrew from the project and in its place was built a new headquarters building of the American Red Cross. In 1959, the old St. Michael's Church was razed to make way for the Lincoln Towers superblock.

All common knowledge. Yet you had to look it up? Didn’t you ever read The Power Broker?!

Thank you so much, r34, for the history lesson. Were the Puerto Ricans I'd always thought were the most displaced group from the creation of Lincoln Center part of the St. Michael's Parish.

Thank you, too, r35, in spite of the snidetude. I'm going to read The Power Brokers.

I was curious about the actual building in the photo - not the general redevelopment story asswipe.

Yet you prattled on, well past the church.

R11 = "Accidental Renaissance."

R39 here. Goya's "Witches' Flight":

Desilu almost bought the rights for Lucy’s return to the big screen, but she refused to let her hair go natural and Robert Wise threatened to out her as a Commie.

Lucy was under serious consideration to play Maria but I put a stop to that!

Shirley Jones

Shirley MacLaine

Judy Garland

Anna Magnani

Etc…

Watch the documentary The Opera House about the building of Lincoln Center and Met Opera. There’s a section with lots of video about what the UWS looked like prior and who was displaced

Carol Lawrence would have been a novel choice.

Connie Francis or Brenda Lee probably would have brought in the teen record buying crowd of the period.

A young Suzanne Pleshette could have croaked out smoky renditions of the score. Connie Stevens had the vocal chops if “Sixteen Reasons” and “Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb” were any indication.

Shirley Temple or Margaret O'Brien

Anna Magnani, now that's a good one.

[quote]The 2021 version was far superior to the 1961 version.

...said no one ever.