Greenwich
Village, 1958.
Mrs. T. cried today. Not my
Nell-mom, who’s not exactly a Mrs. anyway, even if her name does start with a
T. I mean Sophie’s mom, Mrs. Tanya.
She brought Sophie and me to a
show called West Side
Story. It was a musical,
which I didn’t think I’d like very much because why are people singing in the
middle of a play, you know? I mean I’d never seen anything like it.
But this was a really good play,
even though it had some weird ballet type stuff in the middle of the street,
and the ballets were part of the street fights, but in the end I looked at
Sophie and she looked at me. And we agreed it was cool.
The whole play was about a couple
named Tony and Maria, and Tony was regular Italian like my Gary Daddy-o, and
Maria was from Puerto Rico, and her brother and all his friends didn’t like
Tony’s friends because they were from a rival gang. Tony’s gang was the Jets
and Maria’s brother’s gang was the Sharks. And both these gangs were at war
with each other.
After a while I could see it was
kinda sorta based on Romeo
and Juliet, which Sky made us read
one time, out loud, only they transported the play to our times. So if you read
that play you know the ending was sad. And this one was too, but Maria sang the
most beautiful, beautiful song to Tony at the end.
And that was what made Mrs. Tanya
cry. It was really strange to see her cry because she’s a comedy writer, so
mostly she’s always cracking jokes and smiling and looking for things to laugh
about. But here she was bawling like a baby, and the truth is, Sophie and I
were bawling too.
Because Tony and Maria really
loved each other and it didn’t matter to either of them if she was brought up
differently than he was or if he didn’t have the same kind of family she did.
“It’s not us,” she said, “it’s everything around us.”
Which made me think you could say
that about a lot of things, you know? So much hate pushing down on us until we
give in to the pressure and start hating too. And then the love is crushed
under the weight of all that hate.
Tony and Maria tried so hard not
to let it crush them. But the hate was too strong. I thought about it all day
and that’s what I decided. Mrs. T said Maria triumphed in the end because she
didn’t give in to hate, even though her darling was gone.
I see what she means, but in the
end, Maria still lost the man she loved. So if that’s not losing everything,
what is?
I don’t know. I guess even though West Side Story was set
on the upper West side, those gangs are all around us in this city. I wish they all could see this play.
Ruby T.
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