The creation of West side story

In 1949, dancer and choreographer Jerome Robbins suggested to composer Leonard Bernstein that they join forces on a modern musical version of Shakespeare’s romeo & Juliet. He thought the love story, set against a background of family feuds, had universal appeal. the writer arthur Laurents was called in to work on the libretto, but due to work commitments, the project was put on hold.

Six years later, Bernstein and Laurents again discussed the project and Stephen Sondheim was enlisted to write the song lyrics. The creative team was now in place...

Between 1955 and 1957 they worked to create a form of musical theatre “unlike anything done before.” “The aim,” Robbins said, “was to see if all of us could bring our acts together and do
a work on the popular stage... the idea was to make the poetry of the piece come out of our best attempts as serious artists.” West side story was surely a daring, innovative experiment, seemingly ahead of its time; yet the show also represented the culmination of the integrated concept musical that traced back to Oklahoma! Under Robbins’ direction, all elements of the book, score, choreography and design would be woven seamlessly to support what he defined as the show’s central theme: “the futility of intolerance”.

Working with Bernstein on the lyrics, Sondheim sought “to bring the language down to the level of real simplicity [while still expressing serious themes].” According to Bernstein, the key to his edgy, feverish music was the tritone interval. Bernstein suggested that while he and Sondheim were working on the music and lyrics “we raped Arthur’s playwriting. I’ve never seen anyone so encouraging, let alone generous, urging us ‘Yes, take it, take it, make it a song’”.

While past efforts to turn Shakespeare into musical theatre had always involved adaptations
of the Bard’s comedies, West side story was the first attempt to use one of the tragedies as the basis for an American musical. Laurents chose to let the story wind its own way, using
the original as a reference point but sticking as closely as he could to Shakespeare’s original plot. According to Carol Lawrence, who played Maria in the Broadway premiere, at first the collaborators thought Maria should die, as Juliet does, but when Laurents broached the idea to Richard Rodgers (of Rodgers and Hammerstein), Rodgers replied, “You know, the moment Tony dies, Maria is dead already. Her life is over. You don’t need to kill her. It’s sadder if she has to live on alone.” So Maria lives.

To make the characters timeless yet realistic, Laurents invented a special street language, as he felt contemporary slang would date the piece. He even pre-empted the widespread use of "cool" which was not modified into its slang form until several years later. 

Laurents planned the musical numbers very carefully. With the exception of “Gee, Officer Krupke”, which is pure light relief, every song arises from one of the three dramatic situations in the show: the feud between the Jets and the Sharks, Tony and Maria’s mutual love and Anita’s remonstrations with Maria. Robbins too wanted his work to be as integrated as possible with the other elements of the show and the routines he developed were street-wise and vibrant.

The production was not without problems. The original producer dropped out six weeks before rehearsal and Robbins hired young dancers who, while fitting the age profile of the piece, had little acting experience. To make them act like real street gangs, he encouraged them to live out their stage roles, even to the extent of not socialising with members of the other gang. It worked so well that one cast member complained that no one would eat with her.

The show opened in Washington DC to mixed reviews but was an artistic triumph and commercial success when it moved to Broadway. It ran on Broadway for 734 performances before embarking on a national tour.

In 1961 West side story was made into a film which was awarded ten Academy awards. (Adapted from West side story official site)