West Side Story

A musical by
 Dancer and choreographer Jerome
Robbins,
 Composer Leonard Bernstein
 Writer Arthur Laurents,
 Lyricist Stephen Sonheim
Background to West Side Story
 West Side Story is an adaptation of
Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo
and Juliet.
 Think of Romeo and Juliet set to
music and dancing!

 It was produced as a Broadway

musical in 1957 and later made into a
motion picture.
 Partial list of Awards:
ACADEMY AWARDS
· Best Picture, West Side Story
· Best Supporting Actor, George Chakiris
· Best Supporting Actress, Rita Moreno
· Best Direction, Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins
· Best Cinematography, Color, Daniel L. Fapp
· Best Art Direction, Color, Boris Leven (Art Direction), Victor Gangelin (Set
Decoration)
· Best Sound, Fred Hynes, Gordon Sawyer
· Best Scoring of a Musical, Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin, Irwin Kostal
· Best Editing, Thomas Stanford
· Best Costumes, Color, Irene Sharaff
· Special Award, Jerome Robbins for his brilliant achievement in the art of
choreography

Also nominated:
Best Screenplay, Ernest Lehman

GRAMMY AWARDS
· Best Soundtrack - West Side Story, Johnny Green, Saul Chaplin, Sid Ramin, Irwin
Kostal
Setting for West Side Story
 Instead of Verona, Italy, this story is
set in New York City in the 1950’s
Instead of feuding families like the
Montagues and the Capulets
West Side Story features warring
gangs:

 The Sharks – Puerto Rican Gang

 The Jets – Second and third

generation American Gang
 The Conflict
The Jets are from Manhattan. They have ruled
their "turf" for years, after defeating the
Emeralds.

The Sharks are from Puerto Rico. They have

just recently come to NY, and want a "turf" of
their own.
The theme of prejudice in this musical is
directly related to the issue of immigration.
The Jets resent the Sharks not just because
they have “invaded” the neighborhood,
but also because they have “invaded” their
country. The Sharks are foreigners with a
language and customs that are strange to
the “Americanized” Jets.
 Shakespearean Counterparts

Some of the characters in West Side

Story have counterparts in Romeo and
Juliet.

Tony / Romeo

Maria / Juliet
•Doc / Friar Laurence
•Riff / Mercutio
•Chino / Paris
•Bernardo / Tybalt
•Anita / Nurse
Who are the Puerto Ricans?
Where is Puerto Rico?
Puerto Rico is a Caribbean
Island
Brief History of Puerto Rico
 Originally inhabited by two Native
American tribes, the Arawak and
the Caribe, Spain conquered the
island in 1493 and ruled it for
400 years.
• The native inhabitants became
slaves, and as their population
dwindled; black slaves were also
imported. Frequent
intermarriage took place among
the Spanish, the Indians and the
blacks so that race became less
emphasized over time.
•Puerto Rico became a United States
possession in 1898 after the Spanish-American
War. It was then an island of poor farmers and
their families, who mainly grew sugarcane.
•Hurricane devastation and a single-
crop economy caused a very high
unemployment rate through the early
20th century.

•During World War I, the

unemployment rate in Puerto Rico
was a staggering 40%.
“To escape the poverty and
unemployment on the island, thousands
of Puerto Ricans immigrated to the
United States.”
•“The majority of Puerto Rican immigration to the
United States has occurred since the end of
the World War II.

•After the war, the great employment opportunities

drew large numbers of Puerto Ricans to New York
and other U.S. industrial centers.”
 Today, there are more than 2.5
million people of Puerto Rican
ancestry living in the United States.

 Almost one million of these are living

in New York City. Nearly 40% of all
Puerto Ricans live in the United
States.”
 In 1917, Puerto Ricans were
granted U.S. citizenship and
were able to travel freely
between the mainland and the
island. Yet, they did not have
voting rights or political
representation in Congress.
 Famous Puerto Ricans

Jennifer Lopez

Geraldo Rivera Roberto Clemente

Puerto Rico Today
Sources
 http://www.westsidestory.com/site/
level2/archives/fact/faq.html
 http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/
~el6/presentations/
Latino_Americans_S1_WS2003/puerto.html

 http://www.pcs.org/_images/
study_guides/2006_07/
WestSideStoryGuide.pdf