Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, a musical drama with a plot based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, joined symphonic techniques with Latin American and jazz elements to translate the story to a contemporary urban setting.
It is generally agreed that the original idea for West Side Story (1957) belonged to Jerome Robbins, a noted director-choreographer. It was Robbins who suggested using William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (pr. c. 1595-1596) story in a musical with a contemporary setting. The original idea was quite different from what eventually arrived on Broadway in 1957. The first meeting of West Side Story’s creators took place in 1949 and involved Robbins, composer Leonard Bernstein, and playwright Arthur Laurents. What Robbins proposed was a musical using Romeo and Juliet as a foundation. Rather than Shakespeare’s setting of Verona with its warring Montagues and Capulets, Robbins wanted to use the East Side neighborhoods of New York during Easter-Passover. The drama would focus on Catholic-Jewish or Irish-Jewish conflicts.
While such a conflict had at one time been a viable issue for drama, it was decided that the original idea would not work. The world had changed too much. The East Side was not what it had been, and Bernstein felt that the recent influx of Latin Americans to the area presented a more contemporary backdrop for the show. Another problem that arose at that first meeting was a problem present in most musical collaborations: Laurents made it very clear that he had no intention of creating a libretto for a “Bernstein opera.” Laurents’s was a perfectly understandable objection, and Bernstein and Robbins were immediately sympathetic.
The tradition in opera was to recognize the composer and ignore the librettist; everyone knew that Giuseppe Verdi wrote the music for Aida (1871) and Otello (1887), for example, but who knew who wrote the words? The tradition continued even in musical theater; Show Boat (1927) was considered by many to be “Jerome Kern’s Show Boat,” seemingly ignoring the work of Oscar Hammerstein II. It was, in fact, the advent of the songwriting teams such as Richard Rodgers
Bernstein and Robbins realized that, in Laurents, they had a first-rate talent. Laurents was well known for the drama Home of the Brave (1945), and following West Side Story, he went on to write other musicals, including Anyone Can Whistle (1964) and the very successful Gypsy (1959). Bernstein was able to convince Laurents how indispensable he would be to the process. As an accomplished playwright, Laurents understood structure and, in fact, created many scenes for musicalization. The problem was not the collaborators; it was the material. After a little work, they all agreed that an Irish-Jewish “East Side Story” was not going to work.
Work on the project did not resume until 1954; artists of such high caliber as Robbins and Bernstein were naturally drawn to other projects. In addition to his work in ballet, Robbins directed the musical Bells Are Ringing (1956). It is essential to remember the mark that Robbins made in musical theater. Besides working on the physical production of his works as the director-choreographer, Robbins was often deeply involved in the writing process. In 1964, for example, Robbins was brought in to work on what would become Fiddler on the Roof
Leonard Bernstein’s career was even more varied. He was, to begin with, the young conductor of the New York Philharmonic. He had also written the opera Trouble in Tahiti (1952) and the score and some of the lyrics for On the Town (1944), and he was beginning to work on a musical version of Candide (1956). At the same time, Bernstein worked on a series of “Young People’s Concerts” and Omnibus
As the Robbins-Bernstein team came back together in 1954, therefore, they needed to find a lyricist; by that time, though, the idea for the project had begun to take a definite shape. While working in Hollywood on the 1954 film On the Waterfront, Bernstein ran into Laurents. As they talked, they noticed a news article about increased gang violence between Latin Americans and whites. The article’s subject was topical, and it would fit into the “Romeo model.” On their return to New York, they presented the idea and the article to Robbins, who agreed that this was the approach to take.
The search for a lyricist began and ended with Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim was a composer and lyricist whose one unproduced score, for Saturday Night (pr. 1997), had been played for Laurents. While chatting at a party, Laurents told Sondheim about the project and then arranged a meeting between Sondheim and Bernstein. For a young man yet to make his mark, a meeting with Bernstein to discuss a collaboration would seem like an answered prayer, but Sondheim was not sure he wanted to undertake the West Side Story assignment. Sondheim saw himself as primarily a composer, and he did not wish to be typed as a lyricist. (He later gained great success as both.)
Sondheim came very close to rejecting the position, but finally his mentor, Oscar Hammerstein
Hammerstein was right. West Side Story was a chance to work with real professionals at the top of their form. The show opened in Washington, D.C., and very few changes had to be made. On September 26, 1957, the “Romeo project,” now called West Side Story, opened in New York.
West Side Story was not an instant hit. The reviews were generally good, but that year the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best musical of the season went to The Music Man. The show went on tour and, four years after the opening, a highly successful film of West Side Story was made. At this point, the show became a hit. The show’s producers learned several lessons from this experience. Though the show was well constructed, it was not the “happy” musical that audiences were expecting. Of course, the source material was a tragedy, but the production team became very aware of the education required for the audience.
In subsequent revivals and in the film, audiences were given a better idea of the story’s tragic ending. (None of the male leads are left alive, for example, and the production ends with the funeral of the romantic lead.) Death had been used in musicals before (specifically in the major works of Rodgers and Hammerstein), but it had rarely been used to this degree.
The music also became an issue in audience acceptance. One of the common complaints about Bernstein’s tunes was that they were not “hummable.” Oddly enough, the same complaint resurfaced in the criticism of many of Sondheim’s later musicals. There are some important similarities between Bernstein’s score and Sondheim’s later work; for example, West Side Story did not have a conventional overture and made very little use of reprises, and it took some time for the score to get radio airplay.
In his later work, Sondheim, too, used few conventional overtures and made little use of reprises, and the only Sondheim song that proved popular on the radio was “Send in the Clowns.” A Little Night Music
Bernstein’s music was essential to the artistic and popular success of West Side Story. His knowledge and use of different styles of music helped create a score that was diverse yet correct. Latin rhythms associated with the show’s Puerto Rican characters were heard in “America” and “Dance at the Gym.” Show ballads were used for “Tonight” and “Maria.” Jazz forms were used in “Cool,” and opera stylings were used in the wonderfully complicated “Quintet.”
West Side Story, though, is considered a milestone in musical theater largely because of its use of dance.
What was the final impact of West Side Story? After the audience caught its breath, the show became a success. The movie won eleven Academy Awards, including the Best Picture Award
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Bernstein, Leonard. The Joy of Music. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1959. Adapted from the music series Bernstein did for Omnibus, this book is highly accessible. The drawback is that some sort of sound track is required but not provided. Bernstein covers opera, jazz, classical music, and musical theater. He makes little reference to his own work, but he discusses the work that influenced him. Good for research on Bernstein and for a layperson’s study of music. -
Denkert, Darcie. A Fine Romance: Hollywood and Broadway. New York: Watson-Guptill, 2005. Study of musicals that either were adapted to the screen or were based on films. Includes a chapter on the stage and screen versions of West Side Story, as well as one on Gypsy. Bibliographic references and index. -
Engel, Lehman. The American Musical Theater. New York: Macmillan, 1975. One of the most useful sourcebooks for the study of musical theater. Engel looks at the genre’s history, but he is more interested in the structure of the shows that he believes are successful. He writes a structural synopsis of West
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Story that demonstrates the strength of the libretto and compares it to other musicals. -
Guernsey, Otis L., Jr., ed. Playwrights, Lyricists, and Composers on Theater. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1974. A significant contribution to the study of musical theater by the people who made it happen. Though Bernstein is not included, there are insightful edited talks given by Sondheim and Laurents. Sondheim, in a section on “Theatre Lyrics,” discusses the flaw in “I Feel Pretty”; the section shows the lyricist’s mind at work. His discussion of the use of humor in “Officer Krupke” is also valuable. -
Laufe, Abe. Broadway’s Greatest Musicals. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1977. A standard history and one of the usual places to start. Laufe gives a good, if basic, chronological study of the growth of musical theater. The pictures are quite good, and Laufe tells his story well. An excellent foundation for further research. Includes a helpful appendix that gives vital statistics on long-running musicals. -
Williams, Mary E., ed. Readings on “West Side Story.” San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press, 2001. Anthology of essays on the creation, history, and import of West Side Story. Bibliographic references and index. -
Zadan, Craig. Sondheim and Company. New York: Harper & Row, 1989. A large book written and designed for popular consumption. For research on Sondheim, this is clearly the starting point. Notes on his early career, an abundance of photos, and countless interviews are all helpful. A very positive and thorough book. Zadan is especially interested in the process that gets a show to the stage.
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