When the curtain rose for the Broadway opening of the musical West Side Story on September 26, 1957, audiences were stunned and shaken by something new in American theater. Using a dynamic combination of classical theme and modern vernacular in script,...

West Side Story by Arthur Laurents, Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim, and Leonard Bernstein Four gifted New York artists collaborated to create the musical West Side Story. Conductor, pianist, and composer Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) was already a...

West Side Story is a musical written by Arthur Laurents (book), Leonard Bernstein (music), and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics). The story is based loosely on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which was, in turn, based on a narrative poem by Arthur Brooke...

Artistic planets align for Fulton production of timeless musical MaryAlice Bitts The 1957 premiere of "West Side Story" at the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway was nothing short of electrifying. Infused with wild rhythms, soaring orchestration, street-inspired choreography and a passionate, universal...

A DANCER WHO'S FOUND SUCCESS IN NYC AND L.A. TACKLES ONE OF THE DANCE WORLD'S BIGGEST RIVALRIES. By John Byrne As a ballet and modern student at North Carolina School e Arts, I was taught that hip hop, jazz, tap and lyrical pastimes...

“You can say that today is the beginning of a new West Side Story,” Governor Sptizer said at a news conference this morning on West 33rd Street. But, it turned out the allusion was not to Leonard Bernstein’s musical, but rather to a dry, existential...

The American Film Institute's original 1998 list of the top-100 American movies:1. "Citizen Kane," 1941.2. "Casablanca," 1942.3. "The Godfather," 1972.4. "Gone With the Wind," 1939.5. "Lawrence of Arabia," 1962.6. "The Wizard of Oz," 1939.7. "The Graduate," 1967.8. "On the Waterfront," 1954.9. "Schindler's List," 1993.10. "Singin'...

There is an engaging song in West Side Story in which the young heroine, Maria, blurts out the joy of being in love:

           I feel pretty, oh, so pretty,
           That the city should give me its key.
           A committee
    &#...

["West Side Story"] is a bold new kind of musical theatre—a juke-box Manhattan opera. It is, to me, extraordinarily exciting. In it, the various fine skills of show business are put to new tests, and as a result a different kind of musical has emerged. The story is, roughly, Shakespeare's recounting of the love and deaths of Romeo and Juliet. But the setting is today's Manhattan, and the manner of telling the story is a provocative and artful blend of music, dance and plot...

["West Side Story"] is a story with music, but I do not call it a musical because it strikes me as an entirely new form. There are arias, duets, choral numbers; there is ballet and jive, and there is an appealing libretto. It is the most exciting thing that has come to town since "My Fair Lady." Here is one of the rare blends of talent that obviously struck no snags. The idea, a rather loose modernization of the Romeo and Juliet theme, was conceived by Jerome Robbins. It was tran...

Explores the musical West Side Story and describes its importance in inspiring later musicals. Examines the play's revolutionary elements.

The 1961 musical "West Side Story" utilizes the same theme as in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," in which the relationship between two lovers is not accepted by others because of their different backgrounds. The artistic devices, characterizations, and music all serve to explain the differences and the conflicts between the American and Puerto Rican groups. Uneasiness about the presence of Puerto Ricans in America during the time of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts lends a tre

Essay briefly discusses the West Side Story.