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Bullets Over Broadway presents: WEST SIDE STORY HISTORY
WSS is one of the crowning masterworks of the American musical theatre, both on stage and on the screen. It took many years for the idea to be fertilized into a musical play. The idea was born in 1949 with Jerome Robbins, who discussed it with Leonard Bernstein. They wanted to write a musical with depth, perception, and a social point of view. The first idea was something to be called East Side Story, pointing up the poison of racial prejudice by treating a love story between a Jewish girl and a Catholic boy on New York's East Side. The project then remained stillborn, or so it seemed. Then, about six years later, Robbins and Berstein returned to their idea because of an exciting subject. A huge migration of Puerto Ricans into New York had taken place, creating intense hostility between New Yorkers and the islanders, a hostility that affected the young even more than it did the old. East Side Story now became West Side Story (Puerto Ricans settled, for the most part, on the extreme west side of New York), the Jewish/Catholic theme was changed into the American/Puerto Rican problem. Arthur Laurents became interested in developping this idea into a text, and Stephen Sondheim, a writer for television who never before had contributed anything to the theatre, became Leonard Bernstein's lyricist. From the very beginning, Robbins and Bernstein had planned to make their musical a contemporary treatment of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. SYNOPSIS CHARACTER DEFINITION: Riff .......... Glowing, driving, intelligent, slightly whacky Ice .......... Riff's lieutenant, big, slow, steady, nice Baby John .......... Youngest member, awed at everything, trying to act the big man A-rab .......... Baby John's buddy, explosive little ferret who enjoys everything and understands the seriousness of nothing Action .......... Most agressive member, a cat-like ball of fury Snowboy .......... A bespectacled self-styled expert Bernardo .......... Handsome, proud, fluid, a chip on his sardonic shoulder Krupke .......... Big goon-like cop Shrank .......... Plain-clothes man, strong, always in command, with charming and pleasant manner, which he often employs to cover his venom and his fear Tony .......... Good-looking, sandy-haired boy Chino .......... Shy, gentle, sweet-faced boy Anita .......... With loose hair and slightly flashy clothes, knowing, sexual, sharp Maria .......... Enthusiastic, obedient child, with the temper, stubborn strength and awareness of a woman Anybodys .......... Scrawny teenage girl, dressed in an outfit that is a pathetic attempt to imitate that of the Jets Glad Hand .......... Smiling, overcheerful young man of about thirty. He is a 'square' Velma .......... Terribly young, sexy, lost in a world of jive Doc .......... Little, middle-aged man Graziella .......... Would-be grand number The movie takes place in the West Side of New York, in the late 1950s. The Jets are a teenage gang of American boys determined not only to check but to destroy the growth of Puerto Rican population and influence on their block. They are opposed by a Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks, led by Bernardo. In the entirely danced PROLOGUE, the members of the two rival gangs provoke each other. A fight breaks out between them, but it's broken up by the arrival of two cops. After the police has got rid of the Puerto Ricans, Riff, the leader of the Jets, informs his gang that he will challenge Bernardo to a decisive rumble that night at a dance. The Jets are convinced of their invincibility (JET SONG). Riff tries to talk his friend Tony into being his lieutenant for the challenge. Tony, who is the co-founder of the Jets, has been growing away from the gang and is now working at Doc's, the neighborhood's drugstore. Tony reluctantly agrees to meet Riff at the dance and sings about his feelings (SOMETHING'S COMING). The Jets, led by Riff and Graziella, and the Sharks, led by Bernardo and his girl Anita, meet at the dance in the neighborhoood gym, where in choreography their violent hostility to each other is reflected (DANCE AT THE GYM). During the frenzied dancing, Tony meets the lovely Maria. She is Bernardo's sister who has just arrived from Puerto Rico to marry Chino. To both Tony and Maria, it's love at first sight. But Bernardo stops them from dancing together and insists that Chino takes Maria home. Later the challenge is made for a war council to decide on weapons for the rumble. Meanwhile, Tony walks through the streets, thinking only of his new love (MARIA). On a tenement rooftop, Bernardo, his girlfriend Anita and their friends joyfully sing about the relative quality of life among Puerto Ricans in New York (AMERICA). At midnight, the Sharks boys go off to the war council, much to Anita's annoyance at Bernardo. Meanwhile, Tony finds the building where Maria lives and he climbs up her fire escape to meet her. They sing of their love (TONIGHT). They plan to meet in the bridal shop where Maria is employed the next day. At Doc's drugstore, Riff and the Jets are warned by Krupke, a cop, no to cause any trouble on the block. When he leaves, the Jets start mocking at the way they are treated by the police and adults in general (GEE, OFFICER KRUPKE). Later, the Sharks arrive and the two leaders name the place, time and weapons for a big "rumble" deciding which one of the two gangs will be dominant in the neighborhood. Through Tony's influence, an agreement is reached to have a boy represent each of the two gangs, and have them fight out to a finish the following day. The next day at the bridal shop, Maria tells her fellow workers how wonderful it feels to be in love (I FEEL PRETTY), as she prepares for Tony's arrival (her friends assume she is singing about Chino, her fiance). After the place is closed to customers, Tony meets with Maria and makes a promise to stop the fight. They improvise a mock-marriage, with dress dummies as wedding attendants (ONE HAND, ONE HEART). In the quintet version of tonight, everyone sings of their expectation that it will be a wonderful, glorious and victorious night (QUINTET). Under the highway, the fist-fight is about to begin when Tony arrives. He tries to stop the fight and offers his friendship to Bernardo, but Bernardo only insults Tony and pushes him away. Riff steps in and strikes Bernardo. In the fight that follows, switchblade knifes appear and Riff is accidentally stabbed by Bernardo. Tony reflexively takes Riff's knife and kills Bernardo (THE RUMBLE). As police sirens come nearer, the gangs run off, leaving behind the dead bodies of their two leaders. Later Chino arrives at Maria's appartment and tells her about the rumble and that Tony has killed her brother. Enraged, Chino realises that Maria has been seeing Tony and runs away. Tony climbs through Maria's window and begs her forgiveness so he can then go to the police. However, she begs him to stay and they vow to find some way to stay together in a place where there is no prejudice and no hate (SOMEWHERE). The Jets, meanwhile, reassemble in a garage. Their new leader Ice calms them down and advises them to stay cool while they go back out onto the streets (COOL). They are then told about Chino who has a gun and is looking for Tony. They decide that they must protect Tony and run off in all directions, looking for Chino. Anita arrives at the appartment, holding Bernardo's jacket and needing to talk to Maria. Her insistence on Maria's letting her in forces Tony to leave. He says he will wait for her at Doc's drugstore. After rushing to the window and seeing Tony leaving in the back alley, Anita chides Maria mercilessly for loving Tony (A BOY LIKE THAT). Maria responds (I HAVE A LOVE). When a police officer arrives to question Maria about her brother, Maria convinces Anita to bring the message to Tony at Doc's that she will soon join him. Anita arrives at the drugstore to deliver Maria's message to Tony who is hiding in the basement. But the Jets won't allow her to go downstairs and rudely taunt her -finally almost raping her. In anger, rather than deliver Maria's message she tells the Jets that Chino has shot Maria. Doc tells Tony what Anita has said and Tony rushes into the streets, wanting Chino to kill him too. In the schoolyard, Tony sees Maria and they run to each other. At this moment Chino steps out of the dark and shoots Tony, who falls into Maria's arms. In Tony's dying moment, Maria tries to help him remember their dream (REPRISE : SOMEWHERE) as the other gang members arrive. She takes Chino's gun and curses both gangs for their hate, but finds she cannot hate enough to kill. The Jets and Sharks come together to lift up Tony's body and carry him off in a procession, with Maria following. |
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