West Side Story

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Lore & Background

The musical was originally conceived in 1949 by Jerome Robbins, who approached Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents about a contemporary musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, initially focusing on a conflict between a Catholic family and a Jewish family on the Lower East Side, titled East Side Story. After being shelved for almost five years, the project was revived in 1955 when Laurents, Bernstein, and Robbins reworked it, changing the setting to the Upper West Side and the ethnic conflict to one between white Jets and Puerto Rican Sharks. Stephen Sondheim was brought in to write lyrics after Bernstein decided to focus solely on music, and Laurents wrote a new draft changing the male lead to Polish and Irish descent and the female lead to Puerto Rican. The original 1957 Broadway production, directed and choreographed by Robbins, marked Sondheim's Broadway debut. It ran for 732 performances before going on tour, was nominated for six Tony Awards, and won two. The show had an even longer-running West End production, a number of revivals, and international productions. A 1961 musical film adaptation, co-directed by Robert Wise and Robbins, was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won ten, including Best Picture. A 2021 film adaptation, directed by Steven Spielberg, was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, along with six additional nominations, winning for Best Supporting Actress.

Reader's Guide

West Side Story is significant for its integration of dark themes, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, and a tragic love story into musical theatre, marking a turning point in the genre. The original 1957 Broadway production introduced Stephen Sondheim to Broadway and won two Tony Awards. The 1961 film adaptation became a landmark in cinema, winning ten Academy Awards including Best Picture. The 2021 film adaptation continued the legacy, earning multiple Academy Award nominations and a win for Best Supporting Actress. The musical's focus on social problems, particularly ethnic gang rivalry and juvenile delinquency, reflected contemporary issues and influenced subsequent works. Its international productions and revivals demonstrate its enduring cultural impact.

Did You Know?

• The original 1957 Broadway production marked Stephen Sondheim's Broadway debut.
• The musical was originally conceived in 1949 as East Side Story, focusing on a conflict between a Catholic family and a Jewish family on the Lower East Side.
• The 1961 film adaptation won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, from eleven nominations.
• The 2021 film adaptation, directed by Steven Spielberg, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
• The creative team included three individuals who had been blacklisted for alleged communist activities: Bernstein and Laurents, who worked alongside Robbins, who had cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee.

From East Side Story to West Side Story

The project's origins stretch back to 1949, when Jerome Robbins pitched Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents a contemporary take on Romeo and Juliet set on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The original concept pitted a Catholic family against a Jewish one during the Easter-Passover season, with the female lead a Holocaust survivor from Israel. Laurents drafted what he called East Side Story, but the trio recognized it merely echoed earlier works like Abie's Irish Rose. Robbins stepped away, and the material sat dormant for nearly five years. The revival came in 1955 through a circuitous path involving producer Martin Gabel and a shelved adaptation of James M. Cain's Serenade. Laurents, while in Hollywood writing a screenplay for a remake of the 1934 Greta Garbo film The Painted Veil for Ava Gardner, reconnected with Bernstein at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Their conversation about juvenile delinquent gangs—fueled by newspaper coverage of a Chicano turf war—sparked the idea to rework the old material. Laurents, more familiar with Puerto Ricans in the United States and Harlem than with Mexican Americans and Olvera Street, steered the setting toward New York. Robbins, enthusiastic about a musical with a Latin beat, joined the effort. When Laurents backed out of the film project after Ava Gardner was replaced with Eleanor Parker, he was free to commit fully to the stage musical.

The Creative Team and Their Tensions

The assembly of the final creative team was anything but straightforward. Bernstein initially wanted the work presented in operatic form, but Robbins and Laurents pushed back, describing it instead as lyric theater. When the project was revived, Bernstein and Robbins had invited lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green, but that pair chose to work on Peter Pan instead. Laurents turned to the young Stephen Sondheim, who initially resisted because he was determined to write a full score for his own project (Saturday Night had been scrapped). It took the persuasion of Oscar Hammerstein to convince Sondheim that the experience would serve him well. The collaboration also carried a shadow of political tension: Bernstein and Laurents had been blacklisted for alleged communist activities, yet they worked alongside Robbins, who had cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee. Sondheim's involvement marked his Broadway debut. The team navigated language challenges too—profanity was rare on the stage, and slang risked dating quickly. Laurents invented phrases that mimicked street talk without being actual slang, like 'cut the frabba-jabba', while Sondheim converted lengthy dialogue passages into song, such as turning the simple phrase 'A boy like that would kill your brother' into lyrics.

A Story Forged in Social Conflict

Rooted in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet yet radically reimagined, the musical transposes the ancient feud onto the Upper West Side of Manhattan in the mid-1950s, then a multiracial, blue-collar neighborhood. The Jets, a white gang, and the Sharks, recent Puerto Rican migrants, clash over territorial dominance while police struggle to maintain order. At the heart of the conflict stands Tony, a former Jet and close friend of the gang's leader Riff, who falls for Maria, sister of Bernardo, the Sharks' leader. Laurents's original draft tracked Shakespeare closely, but characters like Rosaline and the parents of the lovers were cut early, and the famous death-faking scene was ultimately removed. The result was a work whose dark thematic material, sophisticated score, extended choreography, tragic romance, and unflinching attention to social problems collectively marked a turning point in the history of musical theatre. The show moved the form beyond the conventions of its era, embedding genuine social commentary within the spectacle of song and dance.

Stage, Screen, and Enduring Legacy

The original 1957 Broadway production, directed and choreographed by Robbins, ran for 732 performances before embarking on a tour, and it earned six Tony Award nominations, taking home two. Its West End run proved even longer, and the show has since enjoyed numerous revivals and productions around the world. The 1961 film adaptation, co-directed by Robert Wise and Robbins, became a landmark in musical cinema: it received eleven Academy Award nominations and won ten, including Best Picture. More than six decades later, Steven Spielberg's 2021 film adaptation returned the story to the big screen, earning a Best Picture nomination along with six additional Oscar nods and winning the award for Best Supporting Actress. Together, these productions demonstrate that the material transcends its original medium and era, continuing to resonate with new audiences while preserving the collaborative vision of Robbins, Bernstein, Sondheim, and Laurents.