Genesis[edit]

In 1947, Jerome Robbins approached Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents about c
ollaborating on a contemporary musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. He propos
ed that the plot focus on the conflict between an Irish Catholic family and a Je
wish family living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan,[6] during the Easter Passo
ver season. The girl has survived the Holocaust and emigrated from Israel; the c
onflict was to be centered around anti-Semitism of the Catholic "Jets" towards t
he Jewish "Emeralds" (a name that made its way into the script as a reference).[
7] Eager to write his first musical, Laurents immediately agreed. Bernstein want
ed to present the material in operatic form, but Robbins and Laurents resisted t
he suggestion. They described the project as "lyric theater", and Laurents wrote
a first draft he called East Side Story. Only after he completed it did the gro
up realize it was little more than a musicalization of themes that had already b
een covered in plays like Abie's Irish Rose. When he opted to drop out, the thre
e men went their separate ways, and the piece was shelved for almost five years.
[8][9]
In 1955, theatrical producer Martin Gabel was working on a stage adaptation of t
he James M. Cain novel Serenade, about an opera singer who comes to the realizat
ion he is homosexual, and he invited Laurents to write the book. Laurents accept
ed and suggested Bernstein and Robbins join the creative team. Robbins felt if t
he three were going to join forces, they should return to East Side Story, and B
ernstein agreed. Laurents, however, was committed to Gabel, who introduced him t
o the young composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim auditioned by playing t
he score for Saturday Night, his musical that was scheduled to open in the fall.
Laurents liked the lyrics but was not impressed with the music. Sondheim did no
t care for Laurents' opinion. Serenade ultimately was shelved.[10]
Laurents was soon hired to write the screenplay for a remake of the 1934 Greta G
arbo film The Painted Veil for Ava Gardner. While in Hollywood, he contacted Ber
nstein, who was in town conducting at the Hollywood Bowl. The two met at The Bev
erly Hills Hotel, and the conversation turned to juvenile delinquent gangs, a fa
irly recent social phenomenon that had received major coverage on the front page
s of the morning newspapers due to a Chicano turf war. Bernstein suggested they
rework East Side Story and set it in Los Angeles, but Laurents felt he was more
familiar with Puerto Rican immigrants and Harlem than he was with Mexican Americ
ans and Olvera Street. The two contacted Robbins, who was enthusiastic about a m
usical with a Latin beat. He arrived in Hollywood to choreograph the dance seque
nces for The King and I, and he and Laurents began developing the musical while
working on their respective projects, keeping in touch with Bernstein, who had r
eturned to New York. When the producer of The Painted Veil replaced Gardner with
Eleanor Parker and asked Laurents to revise his script with her in mind, he bac
ked out of the film, freeing him to devote all his time to the stage musical.[11
]
Collaboration and development[edit]
In New York City, Laurents went to the opening night party for a new play by Ugo
Betti, and there he met Sondheim, who had heard that East Side Story, now retit
led West Side Story, was back on track. Bernstein had decided he needed to conce
ntrate solely on the music, and he and Robbins had invited Betty Comden and Adol
ph Green to write the lyrics, but the team opted to work on Peter Pan instead. L
aurents asked Sondheim if he would be interested in tackling the task. Initially
he resisted, because he was determined to write the full score for his next pro
ject (Saturday Night had been aborted), but Oscar Hammerstein convinced him that
he would benefit from the experience, and he accepted.[12] Meanwhile, Laurents
had written a new draft of the book changing the characters' backgrounds: Anton,
once an Irish American, was now of Polish and Irish descent, and the formerly J
ewish Maria had become a Puerto Rican.[13]
The original book Laurents wrote closely adhered to Romeo and Juliet, but the ch
aracters based on Rosaline and the parents of the doomed lovers were eliminated
early on. Later the scenes related to Juliet's faking her death and committing s
uicide also were deleted. Language posed a problem; four-letter curse words were
uncommon in the theater at the time, and slang expressions were avoided for fea

r they would be dated by the time the production opened. Laurents ultimately inv
ented what sounded like real street talk but actually was not: "cut the frabba-j
abba", for example.[14] Sondheim converted long passages of dialogue, and someti
mes just a simple phrase like "A boy like that would kill your brother", into ly
rics. With the help of Oscar Hammerstein, Laurents convinced Bernstein and Sondh
eim to move "One Hand, One Heart", which he considered too pristine for the balc
ony scene, to the scene set in the bridal shop, and as a result "Tonight" was wr
itten to replace it. Laurents felt that the building tension needed to be allevi
ated in order to increase the impact of the play's tragic outcome, so comic reli
ef in the form of Officer Krupke was added to the second act. He was outvoted on
other issues: he felt the lyrics to "America" and "I Feel Pretty" were too witt
y for the characters singing them, but they stayed in the score and proved to be
audience favorites. Another song, "Kid Stuff", was added and quickly removed du
ring the Washington, D.C. tryout when Laurents convinced the others it was helpi
ng tip the balance of the show into typical musical comedy.[15]
Bernstein composed West Side Story and Candide concurrently, which led to some s
witches of material between the two works.[16] Tony and Maria's duet, "One Hand,
One Heart", was originally intended for Cunegonde in Candide. The music of "Gee
, Officer Krupke" was pulled from the Venice scene in Candide.[17] Laurents expl
ained the style that the creative team finally decided on:[18]
Just as Tony and Maria, our Romeo and Juliet, set themselves apart from the othe
r kids by their love, so we have tried to set them even further apart by their l
anguage, their songs, their movement. Wherever possible in the show, we have tri
ed to heighten emotion or to articulate inarticulate adolescence through music,
song or dance.
The show was nearly complete in the fall of 1956, but almost everyone on the cre
ative team needed to fulfill other commitments first. Robbins was involved with
Bells Are Ringing, then Bernstein with Candide, and in January 1957 A Clearing i
n the Woods, Laurents' latest play, opened and quickly closed.[19] When a backer
s' audition failed to raise any money for West Side Story late in the spring of
1957, only two months before the show was to begin rehearsals, producer Cheryl C
rawford pulled out of the project.[20] Every other producer had already turned d
own the show, deeming it too dark and depressing. Bernstein was despondent, but
Sondheim convinced his friend Hal Prince, who was in Boston overseeing the out-o
f-town tryout of the new George Abbott musical New Girl in Town, to read the scr
ipt. He liked it but decided to ask Abbott, his longtime mentor, for his opinion
, and Abbott advised him to turn it down. Prince, aware that Abbott was the prim
ary reason New Girl was in trouble, decided to ignore him, and he and his produc
ing partner Robert Griffith flew to New York to hear the score.[21] In his memoi
rs, Prince recalled, "Sondheim and Bernstein sat at the piano playing through th
e music, and soon I was singing along with them."[17]
Production period[edit]
Prince began cutting the budget and raising money. Robbins then announced he did
not want to choreograph the show, but changed his mind when Prince agreed to an
eight-week dance rehearsal period (instead of the customary four), since there
was to be more dancing in West Side Story than in any previous Broadway show,[17
] and allowed Robbins to hire Peter Gennaro as his assistant.[22] Originally, wh
en considering the cast, Laurents wanted James Dean for the lead role of Tony, b
ut the actor had recently died. Sondheim found Larry Kert and Chita Rivera, who
created the roles of Tony and Anita, respectively. Getting the work on stage was
still not easy. Bernstein said:[23]
Everyone told us that [West Side Story] was an impossible project ... And we wer
e told no one was going to be able to sing augmented fourths, as with "Ma-ri-a"
... Also, they said the score was too rangy for pop music ... Besides, who wante
d to see a show in which the first-act curtain comes down on two dead bodies lyi
ng on the stage?... And then we had the really tough problem of casting it, beca
use the characters had to be able not only to sing but dance and act and be take
n for teenagers. Ultimately, some of the cast were teenagers, some were 21, some
were 30 but looked 16. Some were wonderful singers but couldn't dance very well
, or vice versa ... and if they could do both, they couldn't act.

Throughout the rehearsal period, the New York newspapers were filled with articl
es about gang warfare, keeping the show's plot timely. Robbins kept the cast mem
bers playing the Sharks and the Jets separate in order to discourage them from s
ocializing with each other and reminded everyone of the reality of gang violence
by posting news stories on the bulletin board backstage.[24] Robbins wanted a g
ritty realism from his sneaker- and jeans-clad cast. He gave the ensemble more f
reedom than Broadway dancers had previously been given to interpret their roles,
and the dancers were thrilled to be treated like actors instead of just choreog
raphed bodies.[25] As the rehearsals wore on, Bernstein fought to keep his score
together, as other members of the team called on him to cut out more and more o
f the sweeping or complex "operatic" passages.[17] Columbia Records initially de
clined to record the cast album, saying the score was too depressing and too dif
ficult.[7]
There were problems with Oliver Smith's designs. His painted backdrops were stun
ning, but the sets were, for the most part, either shabby looking or too stylize
d. Prince refused to spend money on new construction, and Smith was obliged to i
mprove what he had as best he could with very little money to do it.[26]
The pre-Broadway run in Washington, D.C. was a critical and commercial success,
although none of the reviews mentioned Sondheim, listed as co-lyricist, who was
overshadowed by the better-known Bernstein. Bernstein magnanimously removed his
name as co-author of the lyrics, although Sondheim was uncertain he wanted to re
ceive sole credit for what he considered to be overly florid contributions by Be
rnstein. Robbins demanded and received a "Conceived by" credit, and used it to j
ustify his making major decisions regarding changes in the show without consulti
ng the others. As a result, by opening night on Broadway, none of his collaborat
ors were talking to him.[27]
It has been rumored that while Bernstein was off trying to fix the musical Candi
de, Sondheim wrote some of the music for West Side Story, and that Bernstein's c
o-lyricist billing mysteriously disappeared from the credits of West Side Story
during the tryout, presumably as a trade-off.[28] However, Suskin states in Show
Tunes that "As the writing progressed and the extent of Bernstein's lyric contr
ibutions became less, the composer agreed to rescind his credit...Contrary to ru
mor, Sondheim did not write music for the show; his only contribution came on "S
omething's Coming", where he developed the main strain of the chorus from music
Bernstein wrote for the verse.[29])