The Making Of West Side Story

A famous composer who was born on August 25, 1918 in Lawrence Massachusetts and died on October 14th, 1990. As well as composing, he was an author, pianist, lecturer and TV personality. His most famous theatre works include On the Town, Wonderful Town, Candide, Mass, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and of course West Side Story. As well as musicals, Bernstein wrote for opera, symphonies, ballets, chamber, solo works and film. His operas included Trouble in Tahiti, and A Quiet Place. He created the score for the movie On the Waterfront. Leonard Bernstein was the first American to be both the musical director and conductor for the Philharmonic Orchestra. He was to married Felicia Montealegre from 1951 till her death in 1978, despite being homosexual and having many affairs. Bernstein had a wide range of musical experience in many genres such as Jazz, Latin, Classical, Neo-classical and more, and he drew on all of these skills to create the unique production of West Side Story.

In the late 1940s Jerome Robbins (choreographer) had the ambition to create a modern day Romeo and Juliet as he was fascinated by the themes in the story and the idea of ‘star-crossed lovers.’ After he met Bernstein and Laurents (writer) this concept was further developed into a musical, the original idea focusing on an Irish Catholic family and a Jewish family living on the lower east side of Manhattan. However, after writing the first draft it became apparent to the creators that this idea had already been explored in multiple plays. The project had come to a stop until a Los Angeles newspaper on gang violence reignited inspiration among the team. The rivalry was now surrounding two gangs: The Sharks, who were Puerto Rican immigrants and The Jets, born in America but with Polish parents. The location of the story was moved from the east side to the west, thus becoming West Side Story. This new concept was said to be ahead of its time as it involved social issues that were relevant to the time such as gang violence, juvenile delinquency, racism and cultural identity. The musical would inspire a movement of social change. Combing these modern ideas with Shakespeare’s classic themes of love, rivalry and tragety. Robbins, Bernstein, Laurent and eventually Sondheim (lyricist), created poetic music, dance and lyrics that they hoped would capture generations. As well as the relevance of gang violence, West Side Story hoped to portray a tender look at young love with a directed contrast to raw and harsh reality. 

The show premiered in 1957. McCarthyism was an issue during the time of West Side Story as many artists were being targeted and considered ‘communist sympathisers’. Jerome Robbins, the choreographer of West Side Story, was labelled as a communist and the only was to save himself was to name another 10 people who were. He named Bernstein, as well as the other West Side Story creators. Although he wasn’t communist he did believe in equality of all people, which was why he was easy to target. They were banned in releasing any musical works, however this status could not be maintained due to Bernstein’s popularity with the public. When casting for the original characters, the creators choose people who were great dancers first, as it was the most difficult and hard to teach, singing was the next important and as a result, their acting was poor. To improve their skills, Robbins created a real feud between the Jets and Sharks members so it would come through on stage with genuine hatred. Rumours where spread and the dancers were forbidden to interact off stage.