West Side Story:Background

When I caught the new West Side Story in Paris, Robbins’s movement remained urgent. The derisive hips and scissoring leaps, the defensive swagger – all still shimmer with heat and fear. The notion of updating Romeo and Juliet first sparked when Robbins’s then lover, Montgomery Clift, was working on Shakespeare at the Actors Studio. Robbins initially proposed a story of tensions between Jews and Catholics, but when Bernstein and the playwright Arthur Laurents became involved, it developed into a clash between white and Puerto Rican street gangs, the Jets and Sharks.
Reflecting the febrile tensions of the New York streets, West Side Story was unknown territory for the original cast. Chita Rivera is now a panther-like Broadway legend, but when she created Anita, the heroine’s confidante, she was a fiery hoofer who had never been required to act. How did Robbins galvanise the young dancers? “Through fear!” Rivera snaps, her throaty laugh roaring down the line from New York. More precisely, it was fear allied to method acting. “He made us all go home and make up our own stories about our characters’ lives,” Rivera explains. “Then he would throw questions at us and build these people up. We became excited, because we were living their lives.”
Robbins slid the story under the skin. He kept the Jets and Sharks apart and mutually distrustful during rehearsals, and one day slapped a news cutting about a local slaying on the studio wall. “It had happened in a schoolyard two blocks away,” Rivera says,still sobered. “Jerry said, ‘This is your life.’” The cast also improvised key scenes, such as the Jets assaulting (and all but raping) Anita. “We sat in a line of chairs and started reading,” Rivera recalls. “Jerry said, ‘Move how you feel.’ It was really surprising. Every day we would figure it out more.” He allowed them to rehearse the sequence only once a day, so Rivera continued to find it raw. “I would feel the presence of these guys around me, and it got really scary. When they finally got me down, it was shocking.” Even in performance, she admits, “it was very hurtful to hear those voices – especially if Chita was feeling a little emotional. It could really get to me”.
The scene remains disturbing, and the current director, Joey McKneely, admits he pushed his cast to achieve this sense of “hatred”. The term disconcerts Rivera, but she concedes it. “At the time, the gang business was very much alive,” she says. Some Broadway spectators walked out, finding the material hit too close to home. Performances were highly charged: during the “rumble” sequence, the guys often went too far and actually beat each other up. Someone even broke an arm. “Real life got into the theatre,” Rivera says.
It was stylised real life, of course. Robbins twisted balletic and athletic movement into a belligerent new idiom. As the piece’s lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, described it to me: “What Jerry did in the show was something between dance and stage action. It was choreographed action.” McKneely has rethought some spoken scenes, and downplayed the period design, but the movement is Robbins’s: “Without it, it’s not West Side Story.”
The young Robbins had resolved to be “firm and straight and even cruel to be faithful” to dance. In practice, this involved being cruel to dancers. Russ Tamblyn, who appeared in the 1961 film of the musical, remarked: “I don’t think he was happy with a dancer unless their feet bled.” When Robbins finally finished with the song Cool, the dancers burnt their battered kneepads outside his office. Exasperated by his pernickety perfectionism, the studio removed him from the film – Sondheim recalls the producer lamenting that by the end of the second day of shooting, they were already 10 days behind.
Despite – or because of – his boiler-room intensity, the dancers adored Robbins. His other collaborators, not so much. Laurents never forgave him for naming names during the McCarthyite witch-hunts, and his friendship with Bernstein became strained.When I spoke to Sondheim in 2005, he described the choreographer as “not only demanding, but unpleasant and cruel. I’m not telling tales out of school, it’s the general consensus. Immediately after work hours, he was just wonderful company – but after 6pm”.
Robbins was a hugely conflicted man, especially around his Jewishness and bisexuality. His appearance before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee in 1953 was impelled by terror of being exposed as gay, but his testimony haunted him for ever. More than three decades later, he confessed: “I can’t escape the terrors of that catastrophe.” Even so, for years he engineered simultaneous relationships with a woman and a man, always scuppering his security. It’s hard to watch West Side Story’s yearning number Somewhere without feeling that Robbins, too, craved a still point where his knotted psyche might rest.

West Side Story:Settings-Romeo and Juliet Vs West Side Story

Having watched the film my self, I took notes about the different settings of West Side Story, and compared them to the settings of Romeo and Juliet:

Firstly, I was aware that Kenneth MacMillan's Ballet Production of Romeo and Juliet was theatre based, whereas Jerome Robbins's Film version of West Side Story was in fact Broadway, therefore I expected Jerome Robbin's settings to be more studio based with some form of actually filming on the locations as well.
 The main difference between Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story is that they are set in two different times, with West Side Story being more modern. This reflects how the setting is created and portrayed to the audience. Here is a table of comapring the settings of MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet and Robbins's West Side Story:

West Side Story	Romeo and Juliet
-Commercialised and industrialised Setting (New York) Neighbourhood setting -Urban	-Theatre Setting-set on stage
-Costumes reflects the setting: Costumes represent the different cultural backgrounds:- Jets, yellow, bold bomber jackets. Sharks, Red exotic colours which stand out from the urban backgrounds.	-Costumes act as identification : Costumes creates a divide for the different classes:- higher classes wear rich coloured clothing, the dresses are heavier and big.
-Maria’s flat/apartment is small, and compact, the washing line is out of the balcony escape. Her room is small, with red bright, bold colours, exotic reflecting her culture.	-Juliet’s house is grand, and big. Her room is large, with tall heavy curtains framing her balcony. Her bed is the centre point of the room, the colours are quite contemporary.
-Tony working has more responsibilities, a job.	-Romeo has no responsibilities, quite immature.
-Maria’s white dress signifies purity, light and flows, lower neck line, red around the waist signifies passion, more grown up, a woman	-Juliet’s dress, white signifies purity, light and flows, has some form of gold embroidery.
-Characters sing and dance their solos.	-Characters dance their solos.
-Constant meeting  place: The bar	-No meeting place
-Maria’s brothers wife, Anita looks after her.	-Juliet has a nurse.
-The gangs tag their own area with graffiti. Own territory.	-The Montagues and The Capulets stay in their own grounds.
-When Tony is alone, there is red sky, red everything, to signify passion (Solo)	-Romeo has his own spotlight, when dancing (Solo)

West Side Story:Key themes of Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story

The overriding theme, of course, between the two stories – Romeo and Juliet and The West Side Story is love – deep, intense and passionate love. The kind that defies everything even families and loyalties.

The love Tony felt for Maria and Romeo for Juliet made them defy their families, their friends and their social world. Their love is strong and forceful, so much so that it made them revolt against the very world they revolved in and, sometimes, even against themselves.

The women, on the other hand, exhibit logic, objectivity and strength. Juliet, for instance, showed her determination when she first obeyed her parent’s request to try to love Paris, their favored suitor. The same way, Maria showed force of will over emotions when she agreed to marry Chino.
Their objectivity comes across when Maria decided to flee the city with Tony to leave the chaos behind them. When Romeo killed Tybalt, Juliet did not follow Romeo right away. Instead she made a logical decision to allow her love for Romeo to guide her priorities. Both Juliet and Maria, in essence, decided to cut themselves loose from their social connections when they decided to follow their love. Juliet cut herself off from her Nurse, her parents and her social status when she followed Romeo. Maria cut loose from her family, her dead brother’s memory and her social circle when she decided to run away with Tony.

There is no specific morale that one can gather from both stories on love and relationships. Both stories seek to portray the chaos and obstacles that surround passion and love.

Violence brought about by love is another theme that permeates in both stories. In both stories, love is linked to death. As in the case of Tony who died at the end of the story in West Side Story. The same goes to Romeo and Juliet, who met untimely death at the end of the story.
Violence is very pronounced in both stories as we are being made painfully aware from the very start that the two protagonists come from feuding clans such as in Romeo and Juliet or feuding culture such as in The West Side Story. We have this unshakeable feeling that trouble is brewing as soon as the story commences.

Another theme in the story is the conflict of individual self with society. What the protagonists in both stories Romeo and Juliet wanted were different from what the society expected from them. Romeo and Juliet fought for their private feelings to the end by committing the ultimate act of privacy- suicide. In the same vein, Maria and Tony fought for their private love but they did not really resort to extreme means. Tony’s death is not brought about by suicide although he challenged the villain Chino to come to kill him when he thought Maria was killed. Still, Tony’s death is not self-inflicted or voluntary as in the case of the lovers Romeo and Juliet.

West Side Story: Cultural Background and Rivarly of the Sharks and Jets

West Side Story presents the Jets, an American gang, and the Sharks, a Puerto Rican gang, who rival over who will rule the streets of the Upper West Side of Manhattan in the late 1950s. The main characters, Tony, an American and ex-Jet, and Maria, the sister of Bernardo (leader of the Sharks) fall in love at a dance. They secretly meet afterward and profess their pure and innocent love for one another. It is heart-breaking to watch Tony and Maria, because viewers can sense that due to their very different cultural backgrounds and traditions, their union will never be accepted by society. In addition, the Sharks and Jets are scheduled to rumble. Tony and Maria, who want peace, can do nothing about this. Tragically Maria loses her brother when Tony accidentally kills him in an attempt to stop the rumble at Maria's request. Maria also loses Tony when Bernardo's avenger Chino kills him. In the end, Maria declares to the Jets and the Sharks that they both killed Tony. She brings to everyone's attention the deadly consequences of killing for the sake of greed and prejudice.

West Side Story: Key Events in the 1950s

• The 50's were the time when the shape of the political landscape in the world could be clearly defined between the Soviet dominated East and the capitalist West.
• The cold war became a grim reality because both sides had the power and technology for a Nuclear holocaust, but equally both knew any war could not truly be won.
• During the 50's and following decades more and more of the old colonial empires would be forced to allow allow countries their independence.

• New York teams rule 50s baseball with the Yankees, Giants and Dodgers

• Popular Culture in the 50's can be captured in just a few words which speak volumes. "The Cold War", "Baby Boomers" , "Korea" , "The Red Scare",. This was the decade where people built Bomb Shelters, had babies and the news was filled with what the reds were doing or going to do.

• The other important change was in how teenagers were viewed up until the 50's teenagers were just children and were treated as such the 50's and future decades changed that where teenagers became an important section of society when politicians and others realized teenagers would very quickly become voters and consumers and a new generation of pop stars including Elvis Presley were created whose main target audience was teenagers.

• As the radio had done in the 20's providing the masses with news and entertainment so the TV did in the fifties originally broadcasting in black and white but later in color.

West Side Story: 1950 Influences

American fashion influence

Living standards improved rapidly during the 1950s. Launderettes and home washing machines made looking after clothes easier. The Rock and Roll and American influence was everywhere. American culture made bomber jackets and casual shirts in bright prints popular with men. Teenagers were identifiable as a distinct group with spending power of their own.

As the fifties progressed, youth culture expanded. Rock and roll caught on, young men took their fashion cues from James Dean, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and other luminaries of popular culture.
In spite of the sartorial conservatism of the 1950s, the foundations were being laid for a fashion revolution, in which convention went out the window and individualism and teen style took centre stage.

1953 in Puerto Rico
The largest migration of Puerto Ricans to the United States mainland occurred, with 69,124 emigrating (mostly to New York, New Jersey and Florida).

West Side Story: Similarities and DIfferences between Romeo and Juliet and West SIde Story (the plot)

Here are  a few extracts outlining the similarities and difference of Romeo and Juliet and West Side  Story:


Key: Green=Romeo and Juliet (difference)
        Orange=WSS (difference)
        Red=Similarity

Laurence's West Side story is an apparition of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet differ in many ways. Romeo and Juliet is set in Verona in about 1594. West Side Story takes in New York City in 1957. Tony is the modern character of Romeo and Maria is the modern character of Juliet. In the two tragedies the major conflict is two opposing families, or gangs, do not agree of the relationship of their child. This conflict was resolved in a very tragic manner, one of the two couples killed themselves the other couple just one got killed. When the death of the persons happened it brought the two foes together. West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet is indeed different in many ways...




Three incidents show Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story differs from one another. The first thing shows the difference between Maria and Juliet, and Romeo and Tony. When Juliet finds that her lover Romeo is dead Juliet kills herself. Maria does not kill herself but instead she puts her sadness into treating the two gangs with a gun. When Romeo finds Juliet supposedly dead he drinks poison to kill himself too. Chino killed Tony because Chino was in love with Maria but so was Tony. This is just one way that Romeo and Juliet differ from West Side Story...

Another way the two stories differ is the wealth of the two families, or gangs. At the beginning of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare describes the Montague's and the Capulet's houses. The size of the two houses shows how wealthy the families are. In West Side Story the author only tells about the Sharks dwelling. The Sharks live in an apartment which shows that the Sharks are not wealthy. The Sharks and the Jets are very poor compared to the Capulets'' and the Montagues'...Swords were used in Romeo and Juliet and guns were used in West Side Story. The reason guns were used in West Side Story was to make the story more modern. Swords were really used in the time of Romeo and Juliet. These are just a few ways that Romeo and Juliet differ from West Side Story...


Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, two timeless dramas that will live forever. One main difference is that in Romeo and Juliet the sililoquy is spoken while in West Side Story there is sililoquy, but it is in song.  While both equally express the character's feelings at the moment, it is my feeling that West Side
Story's musical style brings the viewer/listener further into the play and makes the play more effective.  An example of this is when, in Act II, Scene II, of Romeo and Juliet, otherwise known as the balcony scene, Romeo expresses his thoughts in a sililoquy until Juliet shows up.  While in Romeo and Juliet all of this is spoken, in West Side Story, this is written as music shared between Maria and Tony...

Another major difference between these two stories is that in Romeo and Juliet, Juliet sees Romeo dead and decides to kill herself.  While, in West Side Story, Tony (the Romeo of the play) does die - shot by Chino- Maria is not so stricken and overshelmed that she decides to kill herself.  This is very important because in Romeo and Juliet, neither Romeo or Juliet is allowed to move on with their lives.  In West Side Story, however, I'm sure Maria, although not shown in the film, moves on and gets over Tony...My theory on why the above is true, is that Romeo and Juliet are kept apart by family ties or blood; Juliet a Capulet and Romeo a Montague.  Blood ties are what family is all about and tend to be very strong bonds.  In West Side Story the only thing holding each other back from one another are their ties to gangs; Maria, the Sharks and Tony,the Jets.  This, in my eyes, makes Romeo and Juliet's love for one another stronger than Maria and Tony's.  This is why it is easier for Maria to get over Tony...
Also a major difference between these tragedies is the issue, or non- issue as it were, of marriage.  Marriage is another tie that Romeo and Juliet have that Tony and Maria don't.  In Romeo and Juliet's case marriage is seriously brought up almost immediately after they meet.  In Tony and Maria's case marriage is brought up but, only in a joking/kidding manner.  To me this indicates that Romeo and Juliet are more grown up and ready to tackle life's challenges, while Tony and Maria are a little more childish and unprepared for what they've gotten themselves into...

Although not a major difference, there is the absence of Tony and Maria's parents.  This may not affect the story too much, but Romeo and Juliet's parents come into major play in William Shakespeare's love story or love tragedy, depending on your point of view.  In Romeo and Juliet, without Lord Capulet there is no wedding conflict and much of the quick "thinking" doesn't have to take place...