Introduction
West Side Story is an influential piece of musical theatre and is widely considered ‘a landmark in the development of the American musical theatre’ (Delac, 2022). It’s known for integrating their iconic score and adapted narrative with dance as the most focussed storytelling element, while tackling dark themes, social realism and diverting from theatre escapism. West Side Story first premiered on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 26th in 1957 and continued for 732 performances. In 1949, Jerome Robbins, director and choreographer, conceived the original idea of basing a musical around William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Robbins then proposed this idea to Leonard Bernstein, West Side Story’s composer. The idea developed into their being two teenage rival gangs, the white American communities ‘Jets’ and the Puerto Rican ‘Sharks’, in august 1955 after a meeting with Arthur Laurent’s. Later that year, in November, was when Stephen Sondheim joined the team as the lyricist, this became his Broadway debut, setting his career off. In this portfolio I will analyse the impact West Side Story had on wider society and theatre, through examining the social, cultural and historical context of the period in which the show was written, created and set in. Reflecting on West Side Story’s depiction of social tensions, prejudice, love, immigration and the struggle of living in a divided society, while fully integrating dance into musical theatre.
Social, Historical and Cultural Context
After World War 2, America was met with an economic boom, ‘the United States was in better economic condition than any other country in the world’ (Library of congress, 2019). This led to a positive shift in Americans quality of life, which encouraged migration to American. Therefore by 1955 there was around 700,000 Puerto Ricans living in New York City, chasing the American dream. This movement and The Great Migration meant that America was racially segregated, therefore through both 1950s and 1960s The Civil Rights Movement was being pushed into place to eliminate this prejudice. An example of the racial segregation is when civil rights activist Rosa Parks, in 1955 was arrested for refusing to surrender her seat on the bus for a white passenger. By 1965 The Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act were put in place, to ban any form of discrimination. The increased population of immigrants in America means, West Side Story reflects the racial segregation and rivalry between the white American ‘Jets’ against the Puerto Rican ‘Sharks’, through the two gang’s inability to share Manhattan and the disapproval of Maria’s and Tony’s love affair, to connect with society in 1957. This historical and social era is the complete driving force for all the characters and plot developments in this story. The tragic ending of this story pushes the audience to realise the negative impact discrimination can causes, highlighting that everyone should be treated as an equal. This story is massively educational and unfortunately still relevant to current issues, therefore has been revived four times since 1957, with the last production being shut down because of Covid-19. The shows ongoing relevance links to continuous debates surrounding immigration laws and border policies, being had today, for example with the unfortunate rise of Reform UK political party. The Cold War was a political rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, the anxieties around ‘others’ effecting Americans traditional culture are reflected within this show, through the ethnic tension and differences in opinions.
Sondheim was nervous about taking the role as lyricist on this show because ‘neither he, nor any of the other collaborators, had any personal experience with being poor or Puerto Rican’ (Delac, 2022). As expected, this caused some mixed opinions around the portrayal of these situations. Sondheim was met with notoriety, surrounding his choice of lyrics in ‘America’ where he describes Puerto Rico as an “island of tropic disease”. This show also brought a topic to light for misrepresentation due to not hiring Hispanic or Latino actors to portray the Puerto Ricans story. This mistake was made on the stage version and in the 1961 film production, when the actors in the film were made to put dark makeup on to appear Puerto Rican. This controversy has impacted theatre; we now know that when portraying a story, it should develop from a personal or heavily researched experience and that the delivery of such topic should come from the correct casting type. This response from West Side Story is correct and deserved, worries around the ethnic tension and urban poverty prove that the musical struck away from the traditional escapists musical theatre shows, making an impact. I’ve attached the change in lyrics for the song ‘America’, that were used in the film.
The rise in migration to American meant there was a wide spread of different cultures in America in the 1950s, and due to the American citizen’s having such a segregated outlook, gang violence and juvenile delinquency became a prevalent issue. ‘Between the late 1940s and the opening of West Side Story in 1957, youth crime had doubled’ (Wells, 2011). This influenced the characterisation and drive for both gangs included in West Side Story, and although this show wasn’t aimed at teenager’s, it was aimed at the parents and neighbourhoods experiencing this violence, showcasing the tragedy’s that can come from it. In the song ‘Gee, Officer Krupke’ we see the boys ‘biting social commentary on each of the ways in which society attempted to solve these problems’ (Wells, 2011). Highlighting that nothing is working to end this gang violence and the funny nature of the song, conveys how the boys view this issue, likes it’s them enjoying themselves and having fun, emphasising the real issue this was to society. This decision impacted theatre because before West Side Story, ‘Hollywood had uncovered a highly lucrative new market for movies about teenagers, but Broadway was behind that curve’ (Wells, 2011) and now many musicals choose to symbolise the youth hormones, for example Rent (1996) comments on another band of young rebels. This topic will also find relevance to modern society as youthful gang violence will always be an issue, whether little or small.
Gender roles in America in 1950s consisted of women being homemakers and focussed to their domestic duties, while men were expected to provide for the family. Strictly keeping men and woman in different categories, seen in West Side Story through how the Jets only resort to violence towards the male Puerto Ricans not towards the females. Further emphasised with the character ‘Anybodys’ who is desperate to be accepted by the gang of Jets but is not and is not welcome to the fights. Most musicals of this time, wrote gender roles of this stereotypical type but modern musical theatre stirs away from this, due to the positive development in society and equality.
The composer, Leonoard Bernstein portrays the different culture’s through including Latin rhythms, elements of Spanish language and traditional dance styles, helping show the division in lifestyle, segregation and the cultural conflict musically. He also used leitmotifs to reinforce narrative themes throughout the show. Again, influenced by the social dynamics of the 1950s. For example, in the song ‘America’ Bernstein switches between 6/8 and 3/4 time signature, this builds tension and reflects the syncopated Latin dance style. Although West Side Story wasn’t the first musical to incorporate these Latin rhythms, it did have an influence on further makes of theatre. For example, In the Heights blends different traditional cultural music and has been noted for using West Side Story as an influence. In later 2009 revival, stereotypes of Puerto Ricans were pushed further, incorporating them speaking and singing in Spanish. However, as this tour progressed lots of the Spanish ended up being cut.
The Integrated Musical
‘The idea of designing a piece primarily for the purpose of seamless integration of movement into the storytelling was Robbin’s impulse for creating West Side Story’ (Delac, 2022). He had previously worked on the stage version of Peter Pan, 1954, where he brought dance to the front of storytelling as much as he could. However, he made West Side Story the opportunity ‘for dance to break out of its supporting role to reach its full potential on the theatrical stage’ (Delac, 2022). Previously, storytelling through dance had been seen from Agnes DeMilles choreography of the ‘Dream Ballet’ in Oklahoma, however Robbins was set on casting performers who could do their own dancing, ensuring that dance was shown as a continuation of the plot rather than an addition, rather than in the Dream Ballet where dancers had to briefly replaces actors. Dance showcases many of the most important moments in this show, ‘if you remove Jerome Robbins choreography you lose significant plot, storytelling moments… that are set in the dance’ (Berson, 2011). For example, Maria and Tony meeting for the first time is portrayed only through movement rather than pages of dialogue, which in my opinion moves us as the audience more. The dark themes of West Side Story also gave dance a chance to be dangerous, violent and emotionally engaging, whereas before this show dance was just used as a form of entertainment and as a pause in the action. Robbins inspired others to take a movement/choreographer directional approach, for example he inspired Bob Fosse, who used Robbins pathway with Redhead, in 1959, Fosse, later created his own style of dance to tell story through. Overall, the impact Jerome Robbins made on theatre through West Side Story was showing that dance can be used as a tool to convey the story and push the plot, rather than it being separate and creating a pause within the narrative.
The prologue in West Side Story delivers the same information as Shakespeares Romeo and Juliets prologue, you find out the tone of the piece, the plot summary with foreshadowing to the outcome. However, in West Side Story this is completed through a ‘half-danced, half-mimed’ movement conversation, with very little moments of dialogue. Once the curtain opened, you are met with ‘a sharp chord and dissonant finger snapping, guided gradually by a single, piercing orchestral note that ascended in pitch’ (Garebian, 2000). Which already impacted the audience, because of the traditional musical opening solo or group number being replaced with a complete dance conversation. Within in this opening, we see the Jets enjoying themselves on their turf, contrasting to when we meet members of the Sharks, portraying their ownership and the tensions builds giving space for the Jets to explode with their response on seeing another gang in what they feel is their area.
Arthur Laurent’s adaption of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, impacted how much space the audience had to reflect on the social issues they were being presented with, because many audience members know the significant plot lines of Romeo and Juliet. Laurent’s, making the decisions to maintain almost all of these helped highlight the relevance of the story to audience then and audiences now as we receive the revivals of West Side Story. Musical Adaptations of plays and books continued to be made, none directly because of the success of West Side Story but I believe this show has highlighted how well adaptations can be received, for example Hamilton (2015) and Chicago (1975).
Conclusion
In conclusion, West Side Story was a hugely influential piece of theatre, with its portrayal of serious social issues through movement led storytelling. Set in 1950s America, the musical explored themes of racial tension, youth violence, immigration and cultural and gender inequality, mirroring issues that were deeply relevant at the time and continue to be today. The collaboration of all creatives, Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurent, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, achieved this popular theatre landmark, with their level of detail into every aspect. The impact of West Side Story’s dance integration can be seen in most musicals that are popular today and their comments on social issues still unfortunately reflect on today’s society.
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