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...

[It] is the impeccable taste of the music, the lyrics and the story that seems so astonishing in "West Side Story." Given two lots of hoodlums somewhere on the gritty pavements of New York, how could the authors of the show endow them with so much common humanity, and raise their hopes and troubles to the level of literature? But that is what "West Side Story" manages to do. The world of the Jets and the Sharks is full of violence and danger. The amenities of civilization seem un...

"West Side Story" is a timely re-telling of the Romeo and Juliet legend against the raw violence of youthful gang wars. It has earthy humor and simple beauty. And, best of all, it has tremendous drive. It moves with the speed of a switchblade knife thrust. The Arthur Laurents book is lean and wiry. It never uses two words where one will do. It is an excellent framework for an extraordinary score by Leonard Bernstein, biting and tender lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and magnificent staging by Jero...