Cool (Leonard Bernstein song)
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"Cool" is a song from the musical West Side Story. Leonard Bernstein composed the music and Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics.
[edit] Movie Version
In the movie, the song is placed after the rumble where Riff dies. The Jets are saddened by Riff's death and want revenge. When Action and A-Rab start fighting, a man throws an object at them and tells them to go home. Action loses it and threatens the man, forcing the Jets to bring him into a warehouse. Ice (Tucker Smith), a character created for the film who is now their leader, has had it. He tells them they will have to play it cool in order to get through this.
The choreography for the film version was so severe that Eliot Feld (Baby John) caught pneumonia from filming in the hot warehouse and cooling outside between scenes and had to be hospitalized . When filming wrapped, all the actors ritually burned their kneepads.
This song is known for its fugal treatment of a bebob jazz idiom.
