59 Fun Facts About West Side Story

West Side Story is inspired by which Shakespeare play?

Romeo and Juliet supplied the plot, with rival street gangs standing in for the feuding families. One big change: Maria, the Juliet figure, is still alive at the final curtain.

West Side Story is set among rival street gangs in which American city?

New York, on Manhattan's West Side. The 1961 film shot its opening on condemned blocks that were torn down soon afterwards to make way for Lincoln Center.

Who composed the music for West Side Story?

Leonard Bernstein wrote the score, yet he never conducted the complete show until a studio recording in 1985, nearly three decades after opening night.

Which show beat West Side Story to Broadway's top Tony Award in 1958?

The Music Man, a sunny tale of an Iowa con man, swept the season's major prizes. The gang tragedy went home with just two Tonys, for choreography and scenic design.

Who wrote the book (the spoken script) of West Side Story?

Arthur Laurents made up the gangs' slang himself, because swearing was off-limits on a 1957 stage and real street talk would soon have sounded dated.

Who conceived West Side Story and directed and choreographed the original production?

Jerome Robbins kept the actors playing the Jets and the Sharks apart from day one, even at lunch, and pinned news stories about real gang fights to the walls.

What is the name of Maria's brother, the leader of the Sharks?

Bernardo leads the Sharks and watches over his sister closely. At the rumble he kills the Jets' leader and is stabbed by Tony in return, so the first act ends with two bodies on stage.

What are the Jets famous for doing as they strut onto their turf in West Side Story's opening?

Snapping their fingers: in the 1957 staging the gang's leader stepped out of the dark alone and began to snap, and the other Jets stubbed out their cigarettes and fell in behind him.

The 1949 idea that became West Side Story set its feud between which two groups?

Catholics and Jews, feuding on the Lower East Side over Easter and Passover. The team shelved that draft, East Side Story, as too close to the long-running hit play Abie's Irish Rose.

Which songwriting duo were first choice to write West Side Story's lyrics but could not take the job?

Comden and Green had written On the Town with the show's composer, but a Hollywood contract is said to have tied them up. The job went to a newcomer with no Broadway credits.

'One Hand, One Heart' was first written for which other show its composer was working on at the same time?

Candide was being written alongside it, and tunes moved between the two scores. The melody of the Jets' comic number about a policeman is also said to have begun life in the operetta.

Which song was written to replace 'One Hand, One Heart' in the fire-escape balcony scene?

Tonight took over when the show's book writer argued the first choice was too pristine for hot-blooded teenagers. The slower duet moved to the bridal shop, where the lovers act out a wedding.

What happens to Tony at the end of West Side Story?

He is shot dead moments after finding Maria alive, having been falsely told she had been killed. Boys from both gangs then carry his body away together.

Which film star did West Side Story's book writer first want for the role of Tony?

James Dean was the early wish for Tony, but he was killed in a car crash in 1955, two years before opening night. The part went to a little-known stage performer instead.

Which producing partner of Robert E. Griffith took on West Side Story when others had called it too dark?

Hal Prince was in Boston nursing a troubled show of his own when the original producer quit, unable to find backers. He flew back, heard the score and took it on.

West Side Story's cast was granted eight weeks of what, far more than Broadway shows of the day usually got?

Rehearsals ran for eight weeks, and the director still needed a second choreographer, who worked up the Sharks' steps while he drilled the Jets separately.

West Side Story opened in 1957 at which Broadway theatre, later home to Cats for 18 years?

Winter Garden: after closing there in 1959 the production toured the country, then reopened on the very same stage in April 1960.

Which record label at first refused to record West Side Story's original cast album, calling the score too depressing?

Columbia Records was the composer's own label, yet its executives first told him the songs had too many words and nothing anybody could sing. It released the cast album all the same.

Who created the role of Anita in West Side Story's original 1957 Broadway cast?

Chita Rivera created Anita on Broadway and repeated the role in London, yet the 1961 film gave the part to Rita Moreno, who won an Oscar for it.

Who played Maria in West Side Story's original 1957 Broadway cast?

Carol Lawrence was the only performer in the cast to earn a Tony nomination, and although she played the heroine, it came in the featured-actress category.

Which Hollywood star played Maria in the 1961 film of West Side Story?

Natalie Wood filmed her scenes singing along to her own recordings, believing they would be used. Only once shooting was over did she learn a ghost singer would replace her voice.

West Side Story won two Tonys in 1958, for its choreography and for the scenic design of which designer?

Oliver Smith had designed the same choreographer and composer's 1944 ballet Fancy Free, and it was he who suggested turning that hit into a full-length Broadway musical, On the Town.

Which West Side Story song was a late addition, its lyric lifted from a page of the script introducing Tony?

Something's Coming was a last-minute addition, because Tony needed a number to introduce him. The show's book writer urged the songwriters to raid his own scene-setting speech for the words.

What title was given to the 1960 orchestral suite drawn from West Side Story's score?

Symphonic Dances from West Side Story was first played in 1961 by the orchestra its composer then led as music director, yet he left the premiere to another conductor, Lukas Foss.

Which opera stars sang Tony and Maria on West Side Story's 1985 studio recording?

José Carreras and Kiri Te Kanawa turned the casting upside down: a Spanish tenor sang the all-American Tony, and a soprano from New Zealand sang the newly arrived Maria.

The 2009 Broadway revival of West Side Story wove Spanish into its songs using translations by which Tony winner?

Lin-Manuel Miranda put Shark songs such as 'I Feel Pretty' into Spanish, but five months into the run some of those lyrics were switched back to English.

West Side Story's 2020 Broadway revival, which cut 'I Feel Pretty', was staged by which avant-garde director?

Ivo van Hove threw out the show's famous original dances and ran it without an interval. Three weeks after opening night the pandemic closed Broadway, and his production never reopened.

Which Hollywood director, once the editor of Citizen Kane, directed and produced the 1961 film of West Side Story?

Robert Wise had made his name with gritty, low-budget black-and-white dramas, and he opened this musical with a helicopter shot swooping down on real city streets.

Which of its 11 Oscar nominations did West Side Story's 1961 film lose?

Screenplay was the one that got away: Ernest Lehman's script lost to the courtroom drama Judgment at Nuremberg. One more win would have tied the record eleven Oscars that Ben-Hur had set two years earlier.

West Side Story's 1961 film was the first to share which Academy Award between two people?

Best Director went jointly to a Hollywood veteran and the stage show's choreographer, who had been fired partway through the shoot for running over budget yet kept his credit and his Oscar.

Which singer secretly dubbed Maria's songs in the 1961 film of West Side Story?

Marni Nixon asked the producers for a share of the soundtrack royalties and was turned down, so the composer signed over a slice of his own.

The ghost singer behind Maria in West Side Story's 1961 film also sang for the star of which later musical?

My Fair Lady hid her voice behind Audrey Hepburn's Eliza Doolittle, yet that same year she played Eliza in plain view, in a stage revival of the show.

Which rock star was among the big names floated to play Tony in West Side Story's 1961 film?

Elvis Presley was one of the names being floated, a London cast member recalled, along with Warren Beatty and Robert Redford. The part went to a young actor whose songs had to be dubbed.

Which actor, later Ben Horne in Twin Peaks, played Tony in the 1961 film of West Side Story?

Richard Beymer mimed Tony's songs to the voice of Jimmy Bryant, which means both of the film's young lovers were dubbed by singers the audience never saw.

Which actor auditioned for Tony in the 1961 film of West Side Story but was cast as the Jets' leader instead?

Russ Tamblyn had trained as a gymnast, not a dancer, and by his own account he got through the part by doing a great deal of strutting.

Which West Side Story role did George Chakiris play on the London stage before winning an Oscar as the film's Sharks leader?

Riff, the leader of the Jets, was his part in London, so for the screen he crossed the street and won his Oscar at the head of the gang he used to fight.

Which actor played Tony in Steven Spielberg's 2021 film of West Side Story?

Ansel Elgort played a Tony with a darker past than before: this version has him just out of prison for an act of violence, which is why he wants nothing more to do with gang fights.

Who designed the title and end-credit sequences of West Side Story's 1961 film?

Saul Bass designed the abstract image that plays over the overture, and he saved the credits themselves for a sequence at the very end of the film.

The director of West Side Story's 1961 film followed it four years later with which even bigger box-office hit?

The Sound of Music outgrossed every film before it, passing Gone with the Wind. When its director and its star, Julie Andrews, teamed up again three years later for a biopic of Gertrude Lawrence, the result flopped.

In West Side Story's 1961 film, 'Gee, Officer Krupke' moved to the first half, swapping places with which song?

Cool moved to after the rumble, where the shaken Jets struggle to keep their tempers, so on screen the gang no longer clowns through a comic number just after two killings.

The main theme of West Side Story's 'Maria' is famous for its use of which unsettling melodic interval?

Tritone: once nicknamed 'the devil in music', the interval runs through the whole score, because its unstable, rootless sound suited both the fragile romance and the restless gangs.

In West Side Story, which Latin dance do the rival gangs launch into when a get-together turns into a contest?

Mambo is what the band strikes up after a well-meaning social worker tries to pair the two gangs off with each other's girls. They refuse, and each side simply dances to outdo the other.

Which West Side Story song do Anita and the Sharks perform on a rooftop in the 1961 film?

America was deliberately taken off the roof for Spielberg's 2021 remake, which sends the number out into the daytime streets. Moreno said its makers chose not to compete with a scene so iconic.

Which synth-pop duo took West Side Story's 'Somewhere' into the UK top ten in 1997?

Pet Shop Boys turned the show's hushed ballad of hope into a pounding dance single, and it climbed to number nine in the British chart.

Who wrote the screenplay for Steven Spielberg's 2021 West Side Story?

Tony Kushner had already written Lincoln for Spielberg, and it was his argument that stopped the director from cutting 'I Feel Pretty' out of the film.

Which teenager won María in Spielberg's 2021 West Side Story through an open casting call?

Rachel Zegler was 16 when she saw the call on Twitter and sent in videos of herself singing, and she beat more than 30,000 hopefuls to land what became her first film role.

In Spielberg's 2021 West Side Story, Rita Moreno plays Valentina, the owner of what?

Doc's general store has passed to his widow in this version: the kindly shopkeeper of the stage show has died, and the role was reconceived as Valentina, played by Moreno, who was also an executive producer.

Spielberg cast Mike Faist as the Jets' leader in West Side Story after seeing him in which Broadway show in 2016?

Dear Evan Hansen was the show: Spielberg came backstage after a performance, told Faist about the film he was planning and asked him to audition.

Which actress in Spielberg's 2021 West Side Story became the first Afro-Latina to win an acting Oscar?

Ariana DeBose won for playing Anita, a part she danced so hard in the summer heat of the street shoot that her shoes melted and had to be replaced more than once.

Why did Spielberg say he left the Spanish in his 2021 West Side Story unsubtitled?

To avoid giving English power over it, he said, since subtitles would be 'doubling down on the English'. It matched another rule he set for the film: every Shark was played by a Latino performer.

Spielberg's 2021 West Side Story was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar but lost to which film?

CODA took the top prize, and the musical turned only one of its seven nominations into a win. It had struggled in cinemas too, taking about $76 million worldwide against a reported $100 million budget.

Spielberg's 2021 West Side Story premiered three days after the death of which Broadway great, the show's lyricist?

Stephen Sondheim died at 91 on the Friday before the film's premiere. On the day of the premiere itself, theatres across London's West End dimmed their lights for two minutes in his honour.

Which tomboy in West Side Story longs to join the Jets and is finally accepted as one of the gang?

Anybodys proves herself when the rumble ends in disaster: as the police close in, it is she who pulls a stunned Tony away just in time.

In West Side Story, where do Tony and Maria first set eyes on each other?

At the gym, the two gangs are busy trying to outdance each other when Tony and Maria, taking no part, spot each other across the room and forget everyone else.

Which London theatre, later home to The Phantom of the Opera, first staged West Side Story?

Her Majesty's Theatre, now His Majesty's, kept the show for more than 1,000 performances, so the London staging outran the Broadway original by about 300.

Who created the role of Tony in West Side Story's original 1957 Broadway cast?

Larry Kert created Tony on Broadway, yet when the film was cast in 1960 he was judged too old to play a teenager and the part went elsewhere.

Which future TV star played Anita in West Side Story's 1980 Broadway revival?

Debbie Allen won a Drama Desk Award in a revival restaged by the show's original director himself, using the 1957 set and costume designs. Two years later she was the dance teacher in TV's Fame.

Who won a Tony Award as Anita in West Side Story's 2009 Broadway revival?

Karen Olivo took the revival's only Tony Award. The production was directed by the man who wrote the show's script back in 1957, and he had the Sharks speak and sing partly in Spanish.

In West Side Story, Maria arrives from Puerto Rico for an arranged marriage to which character?

Chino is a friend of her brother's, but Maria confides that she feels nothing for him, and that same evening she meets Tony.