12 Facts About West Side Story

West Side Story is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents.

West Side Story proposed that the plot focus on the conflict between an Irish Catholic family and a Jewish family living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, during the Easter–Passover season.

West Side Story arrived in Hollywood to choreograph the dance sequences for the 1956 film The King and I, and he and Laurents began developing the musical while working on their respective projects, keeping in touch with Bernstein, who had returned to New York.

West Side Story was outvoted on other issues: he felt the lyrics to "America" and "I Feel Pretty" were too witty for the characters singing them, but they stayed in the score and proved to be audience favorites.

West Side Story liked it but decided to ask Abbott, his longtime mentor, for his opinion, and Abbott advised him to turn it down.

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Everyone told us that [West Side Story] was an impossible project.

West Side Story gave the ensemble more freedom than Broadway dancers had previously been given to interpret their roles, and the dancers were thrilled to be treated like actors instead of just choreographed bodies.

West Side Story's painted backdrops were stunning, but the sets were, for the most part, either shabby looking or too stylized.

West Side Story's appears on her fire escape, and the two profess their love for one another .

West Side Story's admits that Chino has a gun and is looking for Tony.

Musical has been adapted to be performed as Deaf Side Story using both English and American Sign Language, with deaf Sharks and hearing Jets.

From 1973 to 2004, Wild Side Story, a camp parody musical, based loosely on West Side Story and adapting parts of the musical's music and lyrics, was performed a total of more than 500 times in Miami Beach, Florida, Stockholm, Gran Canaria and Los Angeles.