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, music, and dance, the creators of West Side Story presented 1950s audiences with a disturbing, funny, and tragic look at what was happening in American society. Borrowing its plot from Shake-speare's Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story replaces the rival families with rival street gangs and augments the theme of love defeated by a conflict-torn environment. The play ran for 732 performances on Broadway, and, in 1961, was made into an award-winning film.

The plot of West Side Story is simple and familiar. Maria, newly arrived in New York from Puerto Rico, is expected to marry Chino, a nice Puerto Rican boy, but instead meets Polish-American Tony...