Excellently done. All the students deserve commendation. I'm throwing my hat in the ring and saying that the brown face is totally unnecessary and insulting. It's more than just stage make up. They can perform WSS with white actors as Sharks because being Puerto Rican is about where they were from. It wasn't just the color of their skin. White Puerto Ricans exist, and they would have gotten the same treatment unless they could hide their accents. It differs from white actors playing roles like Seaweed Stubbs from Hairspray because the skin color is the reason they're treated the way they are. Prejudice is the same at its core, but there are different types, and because they are different, you can get away with switching out races in some roles. Be smart and be kind, people.
I dont think its a huge issue, but unnececary certainly, especially because the color of clothers keeps the factions apart quite easily anyway in the original. If anything they could have changed up the costuming a bit more
I'm Hispanic American and when I saw the painted faces of Bernardo and Anita I smirked and that's all. I was far too focused on the dancing and marveled at how well they recreated the original Jerome Robbins choreography. It's usually toned down and simplified for high school productions but not here, they basically do the steps full justice. I agree that it's unnecessary to have the actors get a tan or paint their faces because Puerto Ricans and Hispanics more broadly come in all shades. "Hispanic" or "Latino" or "Puerto Rican" aren't racial terms. They denote culture, region, and nationality, respectively. What race are "Hispanics" or more specifically, what race are Puerto Ricans? If you say non-White, you'd wrong as there are many fully European blood PR's. PR's like Hispanics more broadly can be of ANY race. They are a multi-racial people. So the actor playing Bernardo could've left his skin alone as well as the actress playing Anita. The only impression it gives is that the characters don't wash their faces often because it looks blotchy and not even. Having said that, I disagree with anyone who would even think for a second of calling the use of brown face here racist, unkind, or insensitive. I have no doubt there was no malice involved and their intentions are obviously good, even if a bit naive. OK, enough of that...I am still in awe with all of these young performers' performances here. Can easily rival a professional Broadway production and cast. Bravo!
It's 2017. And I am stunned that even by today's standards, high schoolers can replicate WSS with such accuracy. Major points all around. choreography, singing, acting, dance coach, VIDEO DIRECTOR/EDITOR, (I'm prejudice and jealous, I'm a TV director :-) ) How much rehearsal did this take? You were/are fantastic, and I wish all involved much jnoy and happiness as you have brought me.
Ohh .. sorry ... I forgot to give major kudos to the musicians .... I was so caught up with the staging. Maestro... you and your kids laid down some heavy tracks. How long did the orchestra have to rehearse? (I'm a trumpet player)
Yeah that lead trumpet was really laying it out extremely impressive also considering how many times they must of played and practiced they must have chops of steel
Okay, there was a way to distinguish the groups without using blatant brown face. For me, I have made one gang have cool colored costumes while the other has warm colored costumes. For Maria and Tony, they would sure white or something to make it known that you can recognize that they are the main characters. They kind of did this for the 2009 Broadway revival ( look it up there is a video), So even if they looked "white," you can still see which side they are on. Puerto Rican comes in many shades, and the brown face is very insensitive to not only them but people of color in general.
EXCELLENT sigh. I loved and ate up every second of this video 2X I can't afford to goto actual theater nor stage performances and this made me feel alive.
this production is absolutely wonderful! my only problem is the obvious brown-face done to make the white actors look latino. it's distasteful and not okay.
Are you familiar with the concept of "stage make up?" It's High school. They work with the cast that is available. Calm down. Are you suggesting that actors not be allowed to play parts of cultures other than their own? It's called ACTING, a-hole.
No, it's not, Nikki, you racist. lol Blackface is supposed to mock your black ass. This is just a fake tan (or a real one seeing how white people can actually tan naturally to the colour of nearly being black whole you can't bleach naturally).
The first thing I noticed was the black face. Are you kidding? I, being Hispanic, can tell you that in Puerto Rico and all over Latin America, people come in different shades of skin. And passed that, we know who’s who because of the names and the dialogue. There was absolutely no need for that absurd stage makeup. It’s appalling, to be quite frank.
There were a few pros mixed in with the students in the orchestra - but the cast was totally students in the theater dept. with the 4 adult roles (Doc, the cops, and the chaperone) played by teachers at the school.
Don't be embarrassed. If your school has the stones to stage WSS ... Do your best, have fun, and be glad you went from beginning to end. Don't constantly compare yourself to others, especially where WSS is the matter. This is Americas #1 objective for high school musicals. sing, dance, have fun.
Look, all of these student are flawless but if you don’t have Latin actors to play Latin parts just pick a different musical to direct.. It’s difficult for me to appreciate the talent when I’m distracted by the obvious caked on brown makeup..
ok y’all im not defending brownface in any way, but can we please shut up and appreciate how awesome these kids’ performances were? the makeup was probably a decision by the director or the makeup/costume people, not the insanely talented actors/orchestra. let’s take a moment to enjoy some good theatre.
www.politico.eu/article/the-case-for-blackface-theatre-african-heritage-offensive/ - an appropriate article to read for everyone that's been commenting on this subject
West Side Story is not "about Americans being racist to Latinos." If you think it is, then "the irony" is how dreadfully you have failed to understand the show while being up on a high horse about it.
Soul of Music my school recently did WSS and the cast was white for the most part, but they were still very respectful and avoided browface completely...and it worked! They delivered the story wonderfully and did it without getting racist and unnecessary tans or using darker stage makeup.
Hey Nikki, would it have been okay if they had just gotten a natural tan from the sun like white, Latino and Asian people can get? Or is it just offensive if you use a make-up tan? XD lmfao
Mics can't go on chests because of the sound the costumes will make. Professionally, mics are usually wired through the wig cap or hair and rest on the forehead. An alternative is for them to be on a thin band that sits around the hairline.
Are you really wanting to compare a professional version (in a different language) to a production from a high school in Texas? One thing I can say, having watched parts of the production you're referencing, is that the camerawork and editing are much better in this version - and to be clear, the performances and music from this high-school level production are incomparable at that level. They should receive nothing but praise.
@@GabrielGomez-xv2zq I looked up their performance and they’re great - I couldn’t find “Mambo” but I saw some other parts of their performance. If you have a link, please post it.
The choreographer Jerome Robbins, whose dances for the original Broadway production were used in the movie version, is no longer living -- which means that his staging ideas are "in the public domain." So it's not "ripping off," any more than having the ensemble step in time to the music at the end of LES MISERABLES Act I is "ripping off" the original staging. It's called performance tradition.
@@detectivefiction3701 Public Domain begins when the person is deceased for at least 100 years. This choreography is not for public use. They are a nice ensemble but the choreographer was using Robbins work illegally as it is copyright law.
I'm sorry to tell you that calling something 'not racist' doesn't magically make it... not racist. What on earth makes you think that you're the final authority on whether something is harmful to black people or not?
I'm sorry to tell you that calling something 'racist' doesn't magically make it... racist. What on earth makes you think that you're the final authority on whether something is harmful to brown people or not?
What is people’s problem with the brown face makeup? That’s theater makeup for you. When you see it up close like in a video like this it look bad, but when you sit in the audience where you see it from a distance it looks normal.
Imagine having this many boys in your HIGH SCHOOL theatre program.....
Imagine having this many students willing to preform with brown face in front of their school and staff 😂
I hope everyone got roasted for this
@@addieb1314 imagine having this many students remembering their lines
Ann Pitz 🤦🏽♀️
@@addieb1314 🤣🤣🤣🤣
whooo i might just faint everyday
they must all be professionals in high school cause they're all amazing
This is INSANELY good for high school... it's actually good for anywhere!
It’s just a normal high school I’ve been there before no professional they’re only doing this cuz of the tommy tune awards
Excellently done. All the students deserve commendation.
I'm throwing my hat in the ring and saying that the brown face is totally unnecessary and insulting. It's more than just stage make up. They can perform WSS with white actors as Sharks because being Puerto Rican is about where they were from. It wasn't just the color of their skin. White Puerto Ricans exist, and they would have gotten the same treatment unless they could hide their accents. It differs from white actors playing roles like Seaweed Stubbs from Hairspray because the skin color is the reason they're treated the way they are.
Prejudice is the same at its core, but there are different types, and because they are different, you can get away with switching out races in some roles. Be smart and be kind, people.
I literally gasped when I looked closer and realized the brown makeup. Completely unnecessary and tone deaf
I dont think its a huge issue, but unnececary certainly, especially because the color of clothers keeps the factions apart quite easily anyway in the original. If anything they could have changed up the costuming a bit more
I'm Hispanic American and when I saw the painted faces of Bernardo and Anita I smirked and that's all. I was far too focused on the dancing and marveled at how well they recreated the original Jerome Robbins choreography. It's usually toned down and simplified for high school productions but not here, they basically do the steps full justice.
I agree that it's unnecessary to have the actors get a tan or paint their faces because Puerto Ricans and Hispanics more broadly come in all shades. "Hispanic" or "Latino" or "Puerto Rican" aren't racial terms. They denote culture, region, and nationality, respectively. What race are "Hispanics" or more specifically, what race are Puerto Ricans? If you say non-White, you'd wrong as there are many fully European blood PR's. PR's like Hispanics more broadly can be of ANY race. They are a multi-racial people. So the actor playing Bernardo could've left his skin alone as well as the actress playing Anita. The only impression it gives is that the characters don't wash their faces often because it looks blotchy and not even.
Having said that, I disagree with anyone who would even think for a second of calling the use of brown face here racist, unkind, or insensitive. I have no doubt there was no malice involved and their intentions are obviously good, even if a bit naive.
OK, enough of that...I am still in awe with all of these young performers' performances here. Can easily rival a professional Broadway production and cast. Bravo!
I mean hey, it’s Texas what do you expect? Oddly enough the one Asian Shark was not face painted 🤔
I'm in awe...this is the best High school production of WSS I've seen so far!
Kiko Li
Same here, Incredible
Pretty sure this isn’t a highschool
@@cyppy7473 read the description buddy
GingerNinja awe shit u right. They still used black face sooo. Yee haw cowboy?
@@cyppy7473 they got spray tans they didn't paint their faces lol
I can't believe that they are high school students... Amazing!!!I think this performance is worth paying!
It's 2017. And I am stunned that even by today's standards, high schoolers can replicate WSS with such accuracy. Major points all around. choreography, singing, acting, dance coach, VIDEO DIRECTOR/EDITOR, (I'm prejudice and jealous, I'm a TV director :-) ) How much rehearsal did this take? You were/are fantastic, and I wish all involved much jnoy and happiness as you have brought me.
waaaaiiittt you mean to tell me you're all high school??!!! wow! great job !!!
This is incredible. Every aspect of this is fantastic.
She’s such a convincing Maria!!! Her vocal range, vibrato, facial expressions, attitude, and smile are everything!!!
This was amazing. Absolutely incredible. I can't believe that they're students my age.
Incredibly done and these kids are soo talented and the people who put the sets together!! Kudos
Awesome! The Broadway revival cast would be very proud of this!
Ohh .. sorry ... I forgot to give major kudos to the musicians .... I was so caught up with the staging. Maestro... you and your kids laid down some heavy tracks. How long did the orchestra have to rehearse? (I'm a trumpet player)
Yeah that lead trumpet was really laying it out extremely impressive also considering how many times they must of played and practiced they must have chops of steel
Woooo hooooo amazing performance. My favorite musical!! Well done! Bravo! mambo!!!! 😍🥰🤣🤣
The "Speak english!" from a shark is just amazing
Amazing!!!
How bloody brilliant was that.
Soooo well done!! I grew up with Natalie wood and you all did amazing!! Good job🙌🙌
Okay, there was a way to distinguish the groups without using blatant brown face. For me, I have made one gang have cool colored costumes while the other has warm colored costumes. For Maria and Tony, they would sure white or something to make it known that you can recognize that they are the main characters. They kind of did this for the 2009 Broadway revival ( look it up there is a video), So even if they looked "white," you can still see which side they are on. Puerto Rican comes in many shades, and the brown face is very insensitive to not only them but people of color in general.
This is by far better than the clip I saw of the 2009 Broadway cast on the Tony's. Nice work!
Awesome choreography and dancers for high school!!!👏👏👏🎶🎶🎶👍👍👍💯💯💯
Can we talk about Glad Hand?? Killed it.
Great .. Just like the movie ....Loved it .
Before everyone freaks out over the “blackface” I just want to point out theater makeup is really obnoxious on camera.
Finally someone said it 😂
True
yeah but not a different skin colour stupid
Yeah lets not, its very clearly brown face. if it was regular stage makeup it wouldn’t only be the sharks wearing it.
This is SO FREAKING GOOD
EXCELLENT sigh. I loved and ate up every second of this video 2X
I can't afford to goto actual theater nor stage performances and this made me feel alive.
this production is absolutely wonderful! my only problem is the obvious brown-face done to make the white actors look latino. it's distasteful and not okay.
Right i'm like, are my eyes working properly?? These people are really in brown face like come on!
PC police mind your own damn business
i mean i agree, but they did it to George Chakiris in the film and i know different times....,more importantly what have they got round their heads?
Blake Fletcher 'Hidden' microphones lol
hahaha really? xD hidden.....
Excellent performance.
Amazing!
Awesome right !! :D
Homie's wearing black face?! Black face?!
stratford playhouse is majority white, the actors who played hispanic roles got tans
Hey man ... are you familiar with the concept of "stage make up."
Are you familiar with the concept of "stage make up?" It's High school. They work with the cast that is available. Calm down. Are you suggesting that actors not be allowed to play parts of cultures other than their own? It's called ACTING, a-hole.
White people will say anything to defend black face like omg. Hilarious actually. You know this is wrong.
No, it's not, Nikki, you racist. lol Blackface is supposed to mock your black ass. This is just a fake tan (or a real one seeing how white people can actually tan naturally to the colour of nearly being black whole you can't bleach naturally).
They are amazing, I only found a little flaw Nardo didn’t allow Maria to join the dance and here they didn’t show that. But they are amazing!!
Could the full show be uploaded
Well done!! Who’s on Broadway now from this production?!👍🏽
These kids did a great job, wonderful performance 👍🏻👍🏻😄
Leonard Bernstein adapted Romeo and Juliet in amazing fashion. I have loved this play and the movie since the first day I saw it as a kid.
I love hearing the different versions of, "Mambo! Mambo! GO!" For some reason.
this is fantastic oh my goodness
pretty damn amazing!!!!!
I am glad they honored some of the original for example rif;s gold jacket
Awesome! Ended too soon. Great post!
BETTER THAN EITHER OF THE MOVIES,,IN FACT,,THE ONLY THING THIS IS MISSING IS TAMBLYNS' GYMASTICS
Dude’s hilarious
The first thing I noticed was the black face. Are you kidding? I, being Hispanic, can tell you that in Puerto Rico and all over Latin America, people come in different shades of skin. And passed that, we know who’s who because of the names and the dialogue. There was absolutely no need for that absurd stage makeup. It’s appalling, to be quite frank.
And then you'd likely be complaining that they cast the Latino characters with white actors.
rubyslipper1939 you know there are white hispanics right 🌚
Clearly you have no idea of what blackface is.
Amazing. Is there somewhere where the whole play is uploaded?
Great Job 👍
Mucho mejor
Mucho mejor el West Side Story de 1961.
I’m doing the summer production of West Side Story at my college I’m playing as Officer Krupke
You can see the dancer pairs getting tired at the end, what an aggressive number. But everyone did amazing.
I did WSS on tour in the 90s.....1/2 of the orchestra and cast must be ringers.
There were a few pros mixed in with the students in the orchestra - but the cast was totally students in the theater dept. with the 4 adult roles (Doc, the cops, and the chaperone) played by teachers at the school.
I like this one
Wow thx cuz OUR SCHOOL IS DOIN DAT AND IM VERY EMBARASSED BOUT IT DUDE LOOK AT THOSE STEP
Don't be embarrassed. If your school has the stones to stage WSS ... Do your best, have fun, and be glad you went from beginning to end. Don't constantly compare yourself to others, especially where WSS is the matter. This is Americas #1 objective for high school musicals. sing, dance, have fun.
Excellent💛💛💛💘
Blues promenade
GREAT!!!
Wow this is incredible for a high school production! Well done! Do you think you could upload "A Boy Like That" if you have it?
I was hoping for the somersaults.
Is this a professional training school re musical theatre etc ?
No, this is a High School theater program - just happens to be a really, really good one.
Look, all of these student are flawless but if you don’t have Latin actors to play Latin parts just pick a different musical to direct.. It’s difficult for me to appreciate the talent when I’m distracted by the obvious caked on brown makeup..
me!
I’m glad I’m not the only one that saw that
This is a live
orchestra of high school musicians?
yes!
ok y’all im not defending brownface in any way, but can we please shut up and appreciate how awesome these kids’ performances were? the makeup was probably a decision by the director or the makeup/costume people, not the insanely talented actors/orchestra. let’s take a moment to enjoy some good theatre.
www.politico.eu/article/the-case-for-blackface-theatre-african-heritage-offensive/ - an appropriate article to read for everyone that's been commenting on this subject
@@THATBILLMOORE so what I’m getting is instead of admitting its wrong ur replying with an article to try and excuse brown face lmfao bye
I LOVE I MISS ACTING IN THIS
Maria's dress in the play looks like Natalie Wood's dress in the original 1961 movie.
Gorgeous! ❤
The girl playing Maria is very sweet and cute
Americans making a movie about Americans being racist to Latinos. The irony
puerto ricans are americans. so its americans making fun of other americans without realizing they are making fun of other americans.
West Side Story is not "about Americans being racist to Latinos." If you think it is, then "the irony" is how dreadfully you have failed to understand the show while being up on a high horse about it.
Wow! So good!!
Great dancing n costumes!
Btw that “Tony” looks less like a gang leader than Richard Beymer. And he looks 13 yrs old!
Wtf… is that self tanner on some of the actors?! If u don’t have enough POC for this production, just don’t do the damn show?
Does anybody see black face?
brownface???? really???
Z Gaztambide grow up. It's called ACTING. They needed to work with what they had.
Soul of Music my school recently did WSS and the cast was white for the most part, but they were still very respectful and avoided browface completely...and it worked! They delivered the story wonderfully and did it without getting racist and unnecessary tans or using darker stage makeup.
Thank you, like i would know who is who without them offensively painting their skin.
Hey Nikki, would it have been okay if they had just gotten a natural tan from the sun like white, Latino and Asian people can get? Or is it just offensive if you use a make-up tan? XD lmfao
Bernardo did not stomp his foot when he extended his arm for Anita to join him.It made Bernardo seem macho instead of suave and gracious.
Given that Bernardo was based on Tybalt (from R+J), it's more accurate that he'd stomp his foot or show some level of aggression. Tybalt was a brute.
boa noite gostaria de ver o musical mambo completo,obrigado pela atenção brasil cidade rio de janeiro.
このクオリティはいろんな意味でヤバイ
this is really incredible dancing but wtf are the tefillin-looking things on their foreheads? i assume they're mics but why not on the chests?
Mics can't go on chests because of the sound the costumes will make. Professionally, mics are usually wired through the wig cap or hair and rest on the forehead. An alternative is for them to be on a thin band that sits around the hairline.
So the Jets wear blue and gold and the Sharks wear red/orange/purple/pink. Nice costuming.
Cha Cha meeting scene jump
I’m incredibly offended by the use of brownface. My race is not a costume
日本人〜？
Brownface in 2014?
I don’t care about how well they acted it this is brownface
Jerome Robbins ...
Ahola I’m Shanebearddj Wow Encore
まねできない！見に行く！ギエムしやんとか！🐱🐱すばらしいボレロ！でもとてもまねできないおどり……☝️☝️まどから…見る近所のおばちやん…あるいてる…神のボレロ…おどらない…
The mexican version is better with bibi gaytan and Eduard Capetillo !!!
Are you really wanting to compare a professional version (in a different language) to a production from a high school in Texas? One thing I can say, having watched parts of the production you're referencing, is that the camerawork and editing are much better in this version - and to be clear, the performances and music from this high-school level production are incomparable at that level. They should receive nothing but praise.
@@THATBILLMOORE you know the Eduardo Capetillo and Bibi gaytan ?
@@GabrielGomez-xv2zq I looked up their performance and they’re great - I couldn’t find “Mambo” but I saw some other parts of their performance. If you have a link, please post it.
Nice ripping off of the film version there
James Court west side story is a musical and had been before the film, and they clearly bought performance rights. They're following the script.
The choreographer Jerome Robbins, whose dances for the original Broadway production were used in the movie version, is no longer living -- which means that his staging ideas are "in the public domain." So it's not "ripping off," any more than having the ensemble step in time to the music at the end of LES MISERABLES Act I is "ripping off" the original staging. It's called performance tradition.
@@detectivefiction3701 Public Domain begins when the person is deceased for at least 100 years. This choreography is not for public use. They are a nice ensemble but the choreographer was using Robbins work illegally as it is copyright law.
Yeah not a fan of the blackface
Yeah, not a fan of your meaningless virtue signalling.
@@phangirlable It says a lot that you think not being racist is performative.
No, it's just not being racist. If something isn't racist it isn't racist.
I'm sorry to tell you that calling something 'not racist' doesn't magically make it... not racist. What on earth makes you think that you're the final authority on whether something is harmful to black people or not?
I'm sorry to tell you that calling something 'racist' doesn't magically make it... racist. What on earth makes you think that you're the final authority on whether something is harmful to brown people or not?
I need energy. There’s no energy!
Why is he wearing nut brown makeup?
La orquesta y la percusión en el mambo está desfasada y los "latinos" bailan deficiente.
Pesimo!!!!!!!!!!
What is people’s problem with the brown face makeup? That’s theater makeup for you. When you see it up close like in a video like this it look bad, but when you sit in the audience where you see it from a distance it looks normal.
Vibeke Degnehave Sandahl Scheibe not all hispanics are tan. Brown face is equivalent to blackface. RACIST
I’m not surprised white people are making these remarks.
People are just wanting to find any reason to be offended imo. I’m a latino and I saw no problem with it.