Problematic Musicals

 For my Monday seminar, I assigned two beloved-yet-problematic musicals: West Side Story and The King and I. "Watch whichever one you haven't seen before," I advised.

I hadn't seen the Rodgers and Hammerstein, so I watched that. 

Yikes. 

The good: 

• The songs are charming.
• Yul Brenner is indeed a handsome, charismatic guy. (Those calves! That chest!)
• Anna's dress in the "Shall We Dance" number is wonderful. I love a dress that accentuates a spin.

Everything else? Well, it's like a lot of Rodgers and Hammerstein: the mid-century liberal good intentions and excellent song/lyric-craft can't compensate for the stifling Orientalism of the script and story.

Especially from a 2025 perspective, the yellowface is unignorable and inexcusable. Rita Moreno and Yul Brenner are amazing; it's not OK that they were made up to pass as "Asian." The dialogue is the prototypical "ching chong" (the derogatory name for stereotyped "Asian" dialects). The styles and customs have nothing to do with nineteenth-century Siam (Thailand). The "Small House of Uncle Thomas" dance number is a visually striking model of concentrated, aestheticized pseudo-Asianness. The trope of "benevolent, culturally mature English white person civilizes ignorant simpletons" overrides everything else. 

I don't see a way to redeem this one, frankly. That it got an acclaimed revival in 2015 surprises me.

Yet I have no doubt that more revivals will appear in the future. Broadway seems addicted to problematic R&H musicals. Recent revisions of Oklahoma! (Oregon Shakespeare's queerly cast production, Daniel Fish's 2019 "gritty" immersive version) attest to this. We're always sure we can fix the major problems in these musicals (the Orientalism of King and I, the exoticization of indigenous folk in South Pacific, the invisibility of indigenous people in Oklahoma!). I remain unconvinced. When is a work so problematic that we allow it to rest?

West Side Story revivals have arguably fared better. At least they've attempted more and more creative changes. Whether such changes work (see varied reactions to the 2019 Spielberg/Kushner revival) remains up for debate. 

I like the music of West Side Story better. I find the Robert Wise movie and the Spielberg one more interesting pieces of film. I respect what Spielberg and Kushner were trying to do, though I question whether they were the right dramatists to tap (there's no shortage of Latine, and specifically Puerto Rican, playwrights and directors). 

Brian Herrera cites a 2022 podcast episode of On The Nose called "Whose West Side Story?" that usefully adds another dimension to the debate. Namely, they discuss how, alongside ongoing criticisms and debates from Latine critics about the show, the work remains an important cultural marker for many Jewish critics. I've not heard the podcast yet. The debate sounds complicated and important and definitely one that doesn't really require my personal input as a non-Latine, non-Jewish person. 

Herrera has also talked about the ways that that musical has inspired other work, creating something of an extended universe of stories and productions based around its themes, music, and legacy. Does this legacy rescue that musical in a way less possible with King and I? How do responses to problematic musicals (e.g., David Henry Hwang and Jenine Tresori's Soft Power) affect such musicals' legacies?

I'll have to see what my students think on Monday.