Maria and Tony, two idealistic teenagers find themselves caught between warring street gangs on the West Side of New York City. It’s the 1950’s, a time of ethnic strife. The white American blue-collar Jets are sworn enemies of their antagonistic rivals, the Puerto Rican Sharks. Both sides are armed with deadly switch blades. Maria is the beautiful young sister of the leader of the Sharks, while Tony, handsome and charismatic, is the best friend of the Jets’ gang leader. Maria and Tony have fallen madly in love with all the earnest passion and idealism of youth. Their soaring love is expressed in memorable lyrics such as “Maria, Maria! I just met a girl named Maria!” and the evocative love duet, “Tonight, tonight, it all began tonight. I saw you and the world went away.” But, like Shakespeare’s famous play, Romeo and Juliet, Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story is a tragedy. Nevertheless, West Side Story is a true Broadway musical with stunning choreography and an important social message. In the end, just as in Shakespeare’s play, the warring sides reconcile in the face of an utterly futile waste of young life. As one of the world’s all-time favourite musicals, West Side Story continues its runaway success on a world tour.
