I do like that.
Though I will say I think the creators wanted, rightfully, to leave the audience with an emotionally cathartic moment of hope after so much darkness. The idea that the gangs could be coming together even if just to carry off this dead body doesn't assume they will stop waring for ever or ever get along, I find it to be without the saccharine falseness that might be at the ending of a musical with this kind of issue... at least if done well. I wonder how it would feel to watch the ending you guys did in the 70s.
I could easily see a director today changing the end so that after the gangs walk off (together or separately), and then... lights change slightly, and Anybodies or someone else, or a random younger kid off the street we haven't identified before, picks up the gun off the street and looks at it intently. I would hate this ending, but it seems to be exactly the cliche sentiment (in several contexts) tacked onto the end of shows with ambiguous or possibly "problematic" endings. |
