Heh! The Johnny Mercer and Frank Sinatra videos could work as motivational videos.
But West Side Story is a horse of a different color for me.
Appreciating Broadway musicals--especially when they include dance numbers--always requires suspension of disbelief.
There's a story that illustrates this.
Robert Leckie was in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. He served in combat in the Pacific theater, as a scout and a machine gunner in H Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division. He saw combat in the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Battle of Cape Gloucester, and was wounded by blast concussion in the Battle of Peleliu. He returned to the United States in March 1945 and was honorably discharged shortly thereafter. In 1951, he saw South Pacific on Broadway and walked out halfway through. He said “I have to tell the story of how it really was. I have to let people know the war wasn’t a musical.” (He went on to write a best-selling war memoir, Helmet for my Pillow, and a great poem, "Battle of the Tenaru, August 21, 1942.")
Leckie couldn't suspend his disbelief for South Pacific.
I can't suspend my disbelief when watching West Side Story. All I see is a bunch of guys dancing around pretending to be hoods.
For some reason, I can suspend my disbelief when watching the source material--Romeo and Juliet--and for Rogers and Hammerstein, and for Lerner and Lowe, but not for West Side Story.
