This production didn’t win, but nonetheless it remains a favorite musical for many many people. One of the Tony Awards Best Musical Nominees of 1958 was West Side Story
With a book by the great Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by the budding Stephen Sondheim (a musical giant of our time), how can you go wrong? To top it all off, they used the plot of one of the top romances of all time – Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.
But why did we love this musical so much? Why was it such a big deal? Aside from having amazingly catchy music, West Side Story brought to the Broadway stage something that had been brewing about for some time and was about to erupt across the nation – racial tension. No longer was this story about warring Montagues and Capulets who just didn’t get along in fair Verona. It was about Puerto Ricans vs. Anglos . . . and an interracial romance. The stakes were raised in addition to Jerome Robbins’s famous choreography.
West Side Story is currently on Broadway for its second revival in honor of it’s 50th anniversary last year. Learn more about it here: http://www.broadwaywestsidestory.com/
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