West Side Story, theatre music by American composer Leonard Bernstein that premiered August 19, 1957, in Washington, D.C., before moving to Broadway for a second opening on September 26, 1957. The musical is a 20th-century American adaptation of the Shakespearean tale of Romeo and Juliet.

Leonard Bernstein
Saul ChaplinIrwin Kostal
West Side Story/Music composed by

West Side Story is the soundtrack album to the 1961 film West Side Story, featuring music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Released in 1961, the soundtrack spent 54 weeks at No.

West Side Story was originally set in the neighborhood of Lincoln Square, or San Juan Hill, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Until the 1950s, the neighborhood was predominantly African-American and Afro-Caribbean. Though it suffered from poverty and crime, it was also a cultural hotspot, especially for music.

The Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents musical, based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, played 732 performance before closing June 27, 1959.

West Side Story is a musical with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. It was inspired by William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. The musical explores the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds.

West Side Story is classical music, but it isn’t opera by any means. It is musical theater done in an elaborate manner, musically very rich, and that’s what makes it classical.

Stephen Sondheim
West Side Story/Lyricists

Ultimately, some of the cast were teenagers, some were 21, some were 30 but looked 16.

New York
Shooting occurred in New York and New Jersey. West Side Story is scheduled to be released by 20th Century Studios in the United States on December 10, 2021, after being delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jerome Robbins
West Side Story is a 1961 American musical romantic drama film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins.

Tony dies in Maria’s arms, surrounded by members of both street gangs. Maria grabs Chino’s gun and tells the gang members that they are all responsible for the deaths of Riff, Bernardo, and Tony. The police arrive and arrest Chino while members of the Jets and the Sharks carry Tony’s body away.

Arguably, its greatest influence was in the theatricality of its presentation—the seamlessness and cinematic flow of its staging—and the integration of script, song, dance, and set. In its original Broadway run, West Side Story ran for 732 performances—a success, but not a smash hit.

West Side Story is the award-winning adaptation of the classic romantic tragedy, “Romeo and Juliet”. The feuding families become two warring New York City gangs- the white Jets led by Riff and the Puerto Rican Sharks, led by Bernardo. Their hatred escalates to a point where neither can coexist with any form of understanding.

The characters are: Romeo and Tony, Juliet and Maria, Mercutio and Riff, and Tybalt and Bernardo. These characters are alike, yet different. They have similar scenes, similar loves, and similar deaths. Throughout the movie of West Side Story, even more characters similar to the characters of Romeo and Juliet.

West Side Story is classical music, but it isn’t opera by any means. It is musical theater done in an elaborate manner, musically very rich, and that’s what makes it classical.

West Side Story is an important artistic accomplishment and is responsible for some significant changes in the concept of the filmed musical. Until its release, musicals were always about rather light-hearted subjects, with the story line usually a contrivance to set up song and dance numbers.