The Story of the West Side Variety!! (Day 21) 9/29/09

The day started out with a bike tour of Central Park. We grabbed a quick breakfast from a bakery next to the bike rental shop, and set out.

The tour consisted of a collection of about a dozen people, and was led by two guides. They directed us through the park, where we stopped every few minutes to be told about a certain site. It seems that every other movie that exists has *some* scene from Central Park.

Central park is the first fully landscaped National Park. Up until the 1850s it was entirely Manhattan Schist and swampland. Beginning in 1854 (If I remember the date correctly) thousands of trees were imported into the park. Truckloads of dirt were brought in from New Jersey (Our guide re-assured us that this isn’t a rude comment about people from the Garden State.) Today, you almost can’t even tell that the foliage isn’t originally from here, except for the fact that the whole place looks a little bit too perfect to be nature.

After the bike tour, we decided to head for the famed Ray’s Pizza, which was having a 45th anniversary 45¢ per-slice special. There was a line stretching to the end of the block, of course. I have to say this restaurant goes on my top 5 pizza places, because these were pies of perfection. It’s hard to describe, but the pizza was amazing. If you’re ever in NYC, go there. We left the restaurant with full bellies and only $4.05 spent. Wow.
Anyway, on to more important topics.
Dad decided that the two things we *had* to see before we left New York were the Empire State building and the Brooklyn Bridge.

We started off by going to the ESB. Outside the base of the building were a few dozen salesmen, each trying with all their might to sell us the ‘Skyride Ultimate Package’, which would have run us up $108. We took the cheaper normal ticket and were fine.

I have to say, seeing off the top of the Empire State Building variety is quite the sight. Even though it is significantly lower than the CN Tower and not terribly impressive from ground, there is a lot more to see than you would think. All of NYC, much of Long Island and a good bit of New Jersey were very visible. The highlight of the observation deck was when we saw 21 police cars in a row driving down a street with their sirens on and horns blaring. Dad said this was probably a drill that the police do to time getting across the city.

We left the ESB and headed for the Brooklyn Bridge. I’ve seen several NOVA shows on what a ridiculous proposal this bridge was at first, and how difficult it was to build. Up until now, I’d just thought that this is just a pretty small bridge crossing a bridge. Boy, you don't really get the sense of just how enormous the Brooklyn Bridge is until you try to walk even up to the first tower from shore. At first it looked to me like a little 2-minute walk on the pedestrian path. 15 minutes later, I was finally closing in on the first tower. Believe me, this bridge is massive.

The first thing that strikes you visually is the main suspension cables. When you see a picture of any major suspension bridge, the cables look like two tiny lines of twine. Once you get up close, even on the relatively small Brooklyn the cables are big enough to walk on. Of course, workers maintaining the structure do just that, hence the handrail-wires on either side. Don't fall off!

Another surprising thing that I noticed is just how wide the deck is. Back when they built the bridge, I would assume that it was mainly stagecoaches and pedestrians crossed the bridge. Now, it is a jam-packed 4 lane road with a large pedestrian/bike path in the middle.

We finished up the day with our first non-touring Broadway show: West Side Story.

The show started with the rival gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. The Jets are a white gang who hate the Sharks because theey don’t want them intruding on ‘Jet Territory’. The Sharks are a recently immigrated Puerto Rican gang, who hate the Jets right back. The Jets and the Sharks appear to be equal-numbered in size, with the exception of Tony, who presumably could tip the balance.
Tony is an older gang member who is inactive at the beginning of the play. The Jets gang leader convinces him to help them ‘take care of the Sharks once and for all’.

Both gangs take part in a dance at the beginning of the show. A girl named Maria, related to the Shark gang is introduced. She appears to be not-so interested in the Shark boyfriend pressed upon her. She attends the dance, without taking much part. Near the end of the dance, Tony and Maria quickly glance at each other and instantly fall head-over-heels in love. They dance and then talk about how confused they are that they are in love with somebody in the opposite gang. A man from the Shark gang then sees Maria with a Jet and quickly drags her back to the gang.

The Sharks and the Jets decide to have a ‘War Council’ that night. They meet up, and come to very little conclusion other than to have a ‘Rumble’. They give the impression that a Rumble is some sort of fight. The two gangs later have the Rumble, and finally the two gang leaders decide to duke it out. After much back and forth actoin, the Jet leader finally pins down the Shark leader. Somebody surprisingly tells him to back off and let him the Shark leader be. As the Jet leader is walking away, the Shark leader jumps up and stabs him to death to everyone’s shock. Tony shockingly finds his best friend dead, and out of rage he leaps forward and brutally stabs the Shark leader to death. Suddenly, the gangs have lost their structure; all hell breaks loose.

After the rumble, Maria is finally clued in to the death of her brother, the gang leader. She is shocked and then Tony walks in. A tense moment ensues, as Tony is the one who killed him. Maria and Tony decide that they want to run away. Tony then leaves.

After another few scenes, a police officer shows up at Maria’s house and asks her about who killed the Shark officer. She tells him his name is ‘Jose’ (of course, lying) and sends her mother to the drug store where the Jets hang out to warn Tony. When Maria’s mother arrives, she is rudely accosted by the Jets before she flees to the owner of the Drug store. Out of her anguish, she decided to lie and tell the drug store owner that Maria was shot by a member of the sharks out of jealousy. He then tells Tony that his lover has killed herself.

Tony runs off in desperate sadness and stumbles around the Jet’s hangout place, until Maria suddenly shows up. Surprised and in joy he runs to embrace her  at the same moment a rebelling Shark jumps out and shoots him. He quickly dies, and the show ends with Maria, the police officer and the murderer all in sadness.

The first stunning thing about this Broadway show is the music. A vivacious, dramatic and relevant melody drifted, bustled or shot out of the sound pit during the play. You wouldn't even notice it until you think about all of the live instruments in the sound pit. It’s amazing to what extent soundtrack can complement, contrast or sometimes even complicate nearly every second of an almost two-hour show.

Another amazing part of the show hit me near the end. Whenever you see professional acting, the actors feel almost completely like the characters they play. However, when I even try my hardest at acting, it always comes out with an awkward, 50’s kid-show sort of jaunt that is highly unrealistic. These actors are so good that you didn’t even realize how skilled they are.

Stunned and Satisfied, we left for our beds and fell asleep before we hit the pillow.