They are the same.” Who says this line, who says that matters
less than the saying, for dancing has become the relationship
of Tony and Maria and the words are a continuation of the pas
de deux. The orchestral underscoring sustains them, elevating
the tritone motif into a Latin beat. Something is taking shape
here. Of course, it is the meeting of the lovers. This is the in-
tegrated musical, certainly it is. But the quality of the scene
depends on what else is taking shape, the motif that is working
its way through the orchestra and into dance, the melody that
will soon burst out when Tony sings “Maria.” This is the voice
of the musical being heard through different scenes. The or-
chestra leads this voice into its variations, guiding it toward
its realization in a popular song structure, “Maria,” at which
point Tony’s character deepens into the performance of the
song.
The Diegetic Orchestra
The musical is subversive theatre. We have been taking the or-
chestra seriously, as a Wagnerian component of the musical,
but the musical is always ready to deflower such piety. To
the extent that the musical’s roots are in burlesque shows and
vaudeville routines, subversiveness is part of its direct inheri-
tance. The revue tradition was at its best when refusing to take
the ideals of American culture at their word. The routines of
Weber and Fields, or Walker and Williams, were underclass
exercises in puncturing solemnity, and when vaudeville did be-
come pious, as could happen in Harrigan and Hart routines
and in the George M. Cohen shows, patriotism and the like
were usually advanced through song and dance rather than
through preaching. Even the operetta tradition, where impos-
sibly romantic plots were allowed to pass as valid much of the
time, made space for comic routines that brought established
values down with a crash. I mention this general characteristic
of the musical because if it is in the nature of the orchestra to
be hidden and omniscient, an unrevealed goddess controlling
the performance, then it is in the nature of the musical not