Maria

I've gone back and forth on what the ultimate song from West Side Story is. For a long time, particularly due to the Tom Waits version, I chose Somewhere, but now I choose Maria.

I'll tell you something about Maria. It's probably the best song called Maria, and that's saying something. No, it definitely is. Something else about Maria ... we went to see West Side Story at the Marlowe in Canterbury 10 or so years ago. Touring production, no one at all famous. At the start, I looked at the stage and remember trying to figure out which actor would be Tony. It turned out to be a young chap who was quite ordinary looking, and, forgive me, I remember feeling a bit surprised, just 'cause of the way these things work.

Anyway, Maria is quite early in the piece, and he sang Maria, and everyone understood why he was Tony. I have never better understood the phrase "took the roof off the place". I remember thinking that both his stunning, spine-chilling vocal and then the huge applause that followed were literally raising the roof of the Marlowe by a few inches. 

We both left the theatre at the end saying "Holy shit, how about when that guy sang Maria". I don't think I'd understood at that point what power the song has. It's a real singer's song. Much as I love Tom Waits and certainly think he's a real singer, I don't think he could do justice to Maria.

So it's funny, when you think of two film versions of West Side Story, both of which I do think are great, that it wasn't a priority in the casting to get someone who could sing the shit out of Maria. Both versions are relatively unmemorable - Richard Beymer in 1961 was dubbed by Jimmy Bryant - no disrespect to either but neither the performance or the vocal performance are particularly outstanding.

The case of Ansel Elgort in the 2021 version is a bit different. Briefly the bright young clean cut kid in Hollywood, starring in The Fault in Our Stars, Baby Driver, and this, his career was brought to a juddering halt when some accusations were made about him a few months before WSS came out. It did for him, and it also clearly had a big impact on the publicity for the film, which was a big box office failure. It's a shame, because it's pretty great. Most of the cast are tremendous - Elgort is pretty good, and a fine, though unexceptional singer.

They should have got the guy from the Marlowe. I actually just looked him up, and he's a very handsome fellow, so I don't know what I was thinking at the time.