5 Facts About the Broadway Classic West Side Story
Explore some of our favorite fun facts about the iconic Broadway production that premiered in 1957, West Side Story. West Side Story, the Romeo and Juliet retelling conceptualized and created by choreographer Jerome Robbins, composer Leonard Bernstein, and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, has become a Broadway and film classic. Learn some fun facts about the show below!
1. A NEW LOCATION
In his original idea for a musical based on Romeo and Juliet, Jerome Robbins wanted the musical to be called East Side Story and be focused on a Catholic boy and a Jewish girl who lived on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. This idea was put on the back burner, each collaborator favoring working on other projects. However, after reading the news of rising teen gang violence in Los Angeles years later, they got back together and moved the location of this now infamous story across town.
2. THE ORIGIN OF “KRUP YOU!”
Stephen Sondheim, the lyricist behind the iconic production, originally intended for West Side Story to be the first Broadway show to use the f-word. However, he changed the line to “Krup You!” over concern that adding a cuss word would limit the distribution of the show’s soundtrack.
3. FOSTERING ANIMOSITY
Jerome Robbins forbade the actors playing the Sharks and the Jets from mingling in real life during pre-production and show performances. This was done to try and increase the animosity between the two groups in hopes that it would translate on stage. The different groups even rehearsed in separate rooms!
4. WHERE WOULD WE BE WITHOUT CANDIDE?
While writing the music for West Side Story (1957), Leonard Bernstein was also writing the music for Candide (1956)! And although the music for these productions is vastly different, some songs originally intended for Candide ended up in West Side Story, and vice versa. “One Hand, One Heart” wouldn’t have found its way into West Side Story if it weren’t for Bernstein working tirelessly on multiple scores at a time.
5. AN UNDERCOVER MISSION
While choreographing the show, Jerome Robbins visited a high school dance in a Puerto Rican neighborhood in Harlem. He wanted to go directly to the source for inspiration for the movements of the Sharks. After the visit to this high school, Robbins wrote to a friend, “They do dances that I’ve never seen before, evolving their own style and approach.”
Photos courtesy of the New York Library for the Performing Arts.