Hi--
I'm wondering what everybody thinks that the phrase from the song "Tonight":
"Tonight there will be no morning star"means.
I always thought it was a metaphor for Tony and Maria's feelings for each other. As in, time will always pass, but their love will always stand the test of time after Tony stops the rumble.
shareThat's an interesting way of looking at it, Dan_the_Man_88. Thanks for the input. I always thought that particular phrase meant that there'd be no morning star shining down on a love destroyed, especially after the deaths of Riff, Bernardo, and, ultimately, Tony.
shareMaybe...though at the time none of those three thought they would die.
shareThanks again for your interesting input, Dan_the_Man_88. I'm inclined to think, however, that even though Riff, Bernardo and Tony never thought they'd die, I still think that the phrase "Tonight there will be no morning star" was a prediction not only of the destruction of Tony and Maria's newfound love, but of the deaths of Tony, Riff and Bernardo.
shareSo you think it's a form of foreshadowing by the author?
shareIn a way, yes, I think it is a form of foreshadowing and predicting what will happen, but it can also mean that Tony and Maria's love for each other will stand until the end of time (whatever that means.).
It could be either or, if one gets the drift, or possibly some combination of both.
There is an irony in it because Tony saying that means that he will not see tomorrow, which is what happens to him.
shareYou've made some good points, stevenackerman69, but I also think that Tony is also predictingthat the romance between him and Maria will go up in smoke, because it was really not meant to be, after all.
shareHi Friend of Film:
If I recall correctly, that part of the lyric comes in the Tonight reprise that is sung right before the rumble.
The full lyric there is:
Tonight, tonight,
Won't be just any night,
Tonight there will be no morning star.
Tonight, tonight!
I'll see my love tonight
And for us stars will stop where they are.
Today the minutes seem like hours,
The hours go so slowly,
And still the sky is light...
Oh moon, grow bright,
And make this endless day endless night!
So my loose interpretation (I was never good at this in English Class. "What do you think the poet meant in Stopping by woods on a snowy evening!") is that they are all collectively hoping for a great outcome -- "morning star" is the brightest light in the evening skies -- it's the planet Venus -- ... "Stars will stop where they are..." so that everyone's lives will be happy, beautiful, and full of hope...
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The world doesnt owe you a damn thing.
Hi, leader-7:
Thanks for your interesting points about the 'Tonight there will be no morning star" phrase in the song "Tonight'.
Although I'm aware that the full lyric is sung during the pre-Rumble Ensemble, I'm aware of the youthful hopefulness that exists between Tony and Maria. Yet, at the same time, I think that, deep down, there's also the prediction that things won't necessarily turn out the way they were hoping, if one gets the drift.
Write a letter to Stephen Sondheim. He writes back.
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The world doesnt owe you a damn thing.
Write a letter to Stephen Sondheim. He writes back.
It means that tonight, this special magical night of love, will never end for them.
shareHere's something else that the phrase
"Tonight there will be no morning star"means:
Unlike other classics, West Side Story grows younger."also plays into that meaning, as well, because it rings so true, and because of the fact that the film West Side Story, for all kinds of reasons, continues to have such a special appeal for so many people, myself included. As I see it, the film West Side Story will continue to withstand the test of time...forever. share
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Yes, this
sharefriendoffilm -- look at the gem I just found on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6gok589fVg
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Thanks for posting this, leader-7. That's such a cool video!
shareAnd I just now (after 55 years) made the astounding discovery that the original Broadway RIFF was played by Michael Callan, billed as Mickey Calin.
Hope all is well in your neck of the woods. we're sweltering here in NY
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Hi, leader-7. Thanks for the well-wishing. Things are fine here in the Bay State, but we've got some hot weather coming our way, also.
I was also aware of the fact that the original Broadway Riff of West Side Story was played by Mickey Calin.
I grew up singing that album -- and the name Mickey Calin never hit home -- since the photo on the cover is of Larry Kert and Carol Lawrence... I only had the 2+2 moment yesterday!
Hot here too -- they're expecting a week long heat wave for us on the east coast. Stay cool, real coollll.! ;-)
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My initial introduction to West Side Story was through the soundtrack of the original Broadway stage production, with Mickey Calin as Riff, and Larry Kert as Tony, and Carol Lawrence as Maria, as well as Chita Rivera as Anita. This was back in the summer of 1962, prior to my entering the sixth grade, while attending day camp out in Tucson, AZ. A girl in the group I was with at day camp, who'd just received a copy of the LP album of the Broadway production of West Side Story as a birthday present, brought it to day camp with her one day, and played it for the rest of the group. My love for West Side Story and its music and the story behind it took off instantly.
Five days a week, every day on the bus to and from day camp, the kids sang all the songs from West Side Story. Kids would also roam the hallways in packs, snapping their fingers and singing the WSS songs, also. It was kind of cool.
When I got home, I'd play my parents' copy of that same WSS LP soundtrack album on my parents' Hi-Fi whenever I could, and I used to love to bang around with some of the songs from West Side Story on the piano.
Due, at least in part, to my relative social isolation from other kids while growing up, and partly because my mom didn't consider West Side Story a kids' movie (my parents would not take my sister and I to see it when its popularity and newness was at its height.), I didn't get to see the film version of West Side Story until around Christmastime of 1968, as a high school Senior, at a now-defunct cinema north of Boston, and where my siblings grew up, during a huge national re-release of the film. On seeing the film version of West Side Story for the first time, I fell in love with it instantly, and have been hooked on it ever since.
I always thought that line was relatively straightforward...Tony and Maria plan on meeting that night, and they don't want it to end.
"oh moon grow bright, and make this endless day endless night"... they want to remain in their blissfully oblivious world where its just the two of them forever, yet within that song we see all the forces that are going to tear them apart coming to a head.
This:
they want to remain in their blissfully oblivious world where its just the two of them forever, yet within that song we see all the forces that are going to tear them apart coming to a head.
It's true enough, but Tony and Maria are the ones singing and they don't know that Tony will die. So what they mean when they sing it is what Weber says - they don't want the night to end because they're so happy.
Maybe another way to look at is that they don't want the night to end because they're happy right now, but they know that reality will intrude in the morning. Tonight they can enjoy their love, but tomorrow they'll have to work on how they can have a life together. IMHO you read too much into it when you suggest that it shows they're aware that their love is doomed.
I see what you're saying about Tony and Maria's optimistic, romantic love of each other and how happy they are at the present, but I think that, at some level, both Tony and Maria know that their love will not see the light of day...that it will be blown apart by the hatred of the two gangs, and it came true.
shareLong time in answering here but imho, this phrase hearkens to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, in the scene after the couple spend their first night together. They go back and forth play-arguing whether or not morning has come (to paraphrase: "It is the Nightingale not the Lark that sings!"). This is because the night has been their moment - their safe haven. The day brings only troubles they must face (specifically, arrest and death for Romeo). The same I think is being hinted at for Maria and Tony, though they haven't arrived at that point of Tony being a target yet, the song is foreshadowing what is come. They will have to face troubles in the light of day and "no morning star" means they will linger in the night - or thier moment forever.
"Good times, noodle salad"
Thank you for some great, good points, JujusFlix! One also must bear in mind, however, that West Side Story was actually based on Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.
shareYou have to remember that West Side Story is based on Romeo & Juliet, and that scene is based on the scene in the play in which Romeo (Tony), having killed Tybalt (Bernardo), who had killed Mercutio (Riff) when Romeo was trying to end the fight, is banished to Verona. He & his wife Juliet (Maria) have spent the night together, and she wants him to stay longer. She tells him it is still night. He says that they can hear the lark singing, and she says that it is not the lark, it is the nightingale. This is what Maria means. She does not want morning to come and Tony to have to leave to turn himself in for killing Bernardo. So she sings that there will be no morning star and their night together will never end.
Incidentally the scene in the bridal shop in which they sing One Hand, One Heart is based on the scene in R&J in which Friar Lawrence unites them in marriage. In some cultures, the fact that they took vows to each other makes them married.
Boo Hoo! Let me wipe away the tears with my PLASTIC hand!--Lindsey McDonald (Angel)
I've never read Romeo and Juliet in depth, but I do see the comparison, now that you've mentioned it, jabell.
Now that I've read other posters' opinions of the meaning of the phrase "Tonight there will be no morning star.", I realize that it can mean either or, if one gets the drift. One can compare it with that particular part of Romeo and Juliet, in that Maria, like Juliette, doesn't want the morning to come, and that their night together will never end.
I do stand by my position, however, that the difference is that the love between Maria and Tony, while it still stands strong, will never see the light of day, if one gets the drift.
Incidentally the scene in the bridal shop in which they sing One Hand, One Heart is based on the scene in R&J in which Friar Lawrence unites them in marriage. In some cultures, the fact that they took vows to each other makes them married.
You have to take the lyric in context.
"Tonight, tonight, won't be just any night.
Tonight there will be no morning star.
Tonight, tonight, I'll see my love tonight,
And for us, stars will stop where they are.
Today, the minutes seem like hours,
The hours go so slowly, and still the sky is light.
Oh, Moon, grow bright, and make this endless day endless night ...
Tonight".
Tony and Maria are anticipating the evening to come. Tony is supposed to go and stop the rumble and then they'll be free to have their magical night of love together. The "morning star" is the last star in the night sky before dawn. They young people want their night of love to go on forever and are wishing for the next day never to come. In a tragic irony, the couple does get their wish. Their love never sees the light of the next day.
I never considered the irony in this phrase, but you've made a good point, dmnemaine.
West Side Story, as a movie-musical, has a lot of ironies in it, generally.
If we link WSS to Romeo and Juliet, the absence on of morning star could mean, the subjects won't be able to meet the morning star as they end their lives before that.
Out of this context, I may say that black cloud may cover the morning star. The link between dark clouds and a troubled outcome is well established in literature, only there is more mystery since clouds are not mentioned.
In the end, as the story mirrors the old tragic play, it is more probable, it means some people won't catch the next morning.
This:
In the end, as the story mirrors the old tragic play, it is more probable, it means some people won't catch the next morning.