This post was going to have a cool title, but basically here's 400 words on why I hate West Side Story.

Alright, I just watched West Side Story for the second time, and I have a lot of feelings. I grew up in a very musical household, and although I had never seen the movie until I got to high school, I heard some of the music and even seven-year-old me was like "nah man". I really don't like the music to this show, which I think makes it so hard for me to enjoy it. No matter how hard I try, I just can't make it past the music, it almost ruins the whole movie for me. The only good songs that I actually enjoy from this show are "Tonight" and "America", and even then, I still wouldn't go out of my way to listen to them.

Secondly, while I'm not trying to take away from Sondheim's talent or ability to write music, (Because that's really freaking hard), I still think some of his stuff is unoriginal. Yes, I know, this is an adapatation of Romeo and Juliet, it's not supposed to be original, but for those of you who don't know, Sondheim also wrote the music to Sweeney Todd, after it became a movie. I personally, completely agree with "if it's not broken, don't fix it", and I feel like that's exactly what Sondheim didn't do. Romeo and Juliet wasn't broken, but he fixed it anyways. I feel like it takes away from the authenticity and actual "rawness" (for lack of a better word) of Romeo and Juliet because it was set to music and (actually, exceptional) choreography. While I understand that R&J is very much well loved and cherished by many people and Sondheim was probably just trying to do a tribute to it, I feel like music and lyrics took away from it.

In addition, while yes, Bernstein and Sondheim did a great job following the plot line of Romeo and Juliet, (Maria goes to the dance, meets Tony, etc., etc., etc.) I feel like a lot of other musicals follow a really similar plot line, even without going "oh yeah, this is a tribute to Romeo and Juliet". Mimi & Roger fall in love in RENT even though they shouldn't be together because they both have AIDS. Eponine falls in love with Marius in Les Miserable even though he's rich and she's poor. Elphaba falls in love with Fieyro even though he's royalty and she's the wicked witch of the west. Belle falls in love with a monster. Ariel falls in love with a guy with legs. Cinderella falls in love with a prince. While yes, all of these movies have different endings, and different composers, it's all basically the same story. People fall in love with people they can't have, and shit goes down.

Moral of the story, I still hate West Side Story.