Word: westly
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...someone who likes to think I have a fairly complete education in the Broadway musical, however, one show holds a special place: West Side Story. Of all the widely accepted masterpieces of the genre, it's the one I have never seen onstage. Nor even - until a few weeks ago, when I finally broke down and rented the DVD - the multiple-Oscar-winning 1961 movie. Of course, I know most of the Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim score; I've seen enough clips to be familiar with the famed Jerome Robbins choreography; and I'd have to be a pretty benighted...
Still, last week's opening of a new revival of West Side Story - the first on Broadway since 1980 - gave me the rare opportunity of encountering an American musical classic in the way, by rights, every show ought to be encountered: as if for the first time. No memories of the original to protect - or, conversely, any need for a radical reinvention to renew my interest. No, I came to West Side Story simply to find out whether, in 2009, the show still entertains, excites, lives up to its gargantuan reputation. And my verdict, alas, is: Not quite...
Amman, Jordan Jordan has a U.S.-educated King and depends substantially on U.S. handouts. It is also, as Hooper points out, "in the heart of the Arabic-speaking world" - literally and symbolically. It has direct links with the Middle East's most problematic places: the West Bank (more than half of Jordan's population is of Palestinian origin), Israel, Iraq and Syria. It has also struggled with terrorism; Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, founder of al-Qaeda in Iraq, was Jordanian...
Istanbul, Turkey Ironically, the sweet spot for Obama's speech may well be the country he visits next month, in his first trip as President to a Muslim nation. Turkey, says Hooper, is "the bridge between the Islamic world and the West, and it's a good setting for bridge-building, for establishing increased dialogue." In the past, many Muslims regarded Turkey with some suspicion because of Ankara's strident secularism; Turkey was seen as a country ashamed of its religion. But with an Islamist party now in power, that perception is changing. Turkey has also emerged as a player...
...other hand, that whole bridge-between-East-and-West thing is a bit of a cliché; every Western leader who has ever given a speech in Istanbul has made that point. If Obama wants to be different, he may need another location. "Turkey is a safe choice, but not an inspired one," says the Arab diplomat. "It's like shooting terrorists from a Predator drone - you get the job done, but you don't really engage with people on the ground...