West Side Story is a brilliant updating of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the two warring families of Verona now two streets gangs of kids from two different immigrant cultures coexisting in one New York City neighborhood. West Side Story demonstrates yet again the enduring quality of Shakespeare's work, how he explored personal desires and social structures so intrinsically human that we can still identify with his characters 400 years later and recognize how our reinvented society mirrors those of his plays. Young lovers Maria and Tony are caught in a storm of racial intolerance, family traditions, and street-gang rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks against the back drop of New York City's west side during the last days of summer, 1957. In this essay, I am going to examine how the creators of West Side Story ¡V Leonard Bernstein (composer), Arthur Laurents (Librettist) and Jerome Robbins (Director) made adaptations to it. In addition, I will discuss whether the theme of......

Join Now to view the rest of this term paper!
Members: Login to view this research paper.

Title: West Side Story
Approximate Word Count: 728
Approximate Pages: 3 (250 words per double-spaced page)

With the Term Papers Lab Membership Pass, you get instant access to every essay on this site, including this essay on West Side Story, for as long as you remain a member.

Other essays sites charge almost $100 for a single term paper. At Term Papers Lab, you can get instant access to over 100,000 research papers for as little as $29.95!