Q 01/05

West Side Story is inspired by which Shakespeare play?

A) Romeo and Juliet

B) Othello

C) Twelfth Night

D) A Midsummer Night's Dream

Answer · why

A) Romeo and Juliet

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 a...

Q 02/05

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

A) New York

B) Chicago

C) Los Angeles

D) Philadelphia

Answer · why

A) New York

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 Cen...

Q 03/05

Who composed the music for West Side Story?

A) Cole Porter

B) Leonard Bernstein

C) Frederick Loewe

D) Richard Rodgers

Answer · why

B) Leonard Bernstein

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

Q 04/05

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

A) Gypsy

B) The King and I

C) The Music Man

D) Damn Yankees

Answer · why

C) The Music Man

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 ...

Q 05/05

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

A) Abe Burrows

B) Arthur Laurents

C) Moss Hart

D) Neil Simon

Answer · why

B) Arthur Laurents

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.