Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story
‘A critical reading and contextualisation of West Side Story written by Arthur Laurents, music by
Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephan Sondheim and choreographed by Jerome Robbins.’
West Side Story is a 1961 film set in the mid-1950s in the upper west side of New York. West Side
Story is based and inspired by Williams Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The film is an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story. In West Side Story the protagonist is the former leader of the Jets, Tony, who falls in love with Maria, who is one of the Puerto Ricans; their love is forbidden, just like in Romeo and Juliet. In this essay post-colonial theory, structuralism, semiotics and feminism will be discussed.
As the film is set in the mid-1950s this …show more content…
There was a massive movement in America at this point, the
African-Americans were in the spotlight for racial inequality and discrimination.
In the upper west side of New York city it was classed as the ethnic blue-collar neighbourhood.
Stephan Sondheim, the lyricist, was brought up in the upper west side of Manhattan amongst the blue collar society and gang warfare which is where the inspiration of its synopsis and setting has come from. In ethnic neighbourhoods there was a lot of people that were in the working class that conducted manual labour jobs, which involved jobs like warehouse work, maintenance, sanitation, mining etc. The choreographer, Jerome Robbins, was born in the lower east side of Manhattan which is where a lot of immigrants settled and joined the American society, for example the
Puerto Ricans. This could have been his influence in choreography, keeping two separate ethnic groups separate encouraging them to not socialise with one another and opening the audiences eyes to the reality of gang violence within society. Gangs mainly fought over territory of land, in
West Side Story the gangs were split into the Puerto Ricans (Sharks) and the Americans …show more content…
She sees that male gender as far more desirable, instead of depicting gender variance or even trans-character, the Jets view her as a defective female. Some of the Jets taunt her so that no one would want to sleep with her.
According to society and to the Jets, a woman 's status is dependent on their beauty, sexuality and desirability. In the ‘Tonight’, Maria is on top of the balcony and Tony is at the bottom of the balcony shouting for Maria. This is also a similar setting to Romeo and Juliet, where they are on a balcony. In both
Romeo and Juliet and in West Side Story they both proclaim their forbidden love as they are both
‘star-cross lovers’. Tragedy is a common theme in West Side Story and in Romeo and Juliet; the lovers were forced to take their own lives or to be killed because of the fate and the actions of others. In Romeo and Juliet, one of the characters who is partly responsible deaths of both Romeo and Juliet is Tybalt. Tybalt enrages Romeo and causes him to kill Tybalt, this brings out Romeo’s exile from Verona. If this did not happen, Romeo would have heard Friar Lawrence’s plan to keep
Juliet from getting married. If he had known of the plan, he would not have gone to the vault
Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephan Sondheim and choreographed by Jerome Robbins.’
West Side Story is a 1961 film set in the mid-1950s in the upper west side of New York. West Side
Story is based and inspired by Williams Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The film is an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story. In West Side Story the protagonist is the former leader of the Jets, Tony, who falls in love with Maria, who is one of the Puerto Ricans; their love is forbidden, just like in Romeo and Juliet. In this essay post-colonial theory, structuralism, semiotics and feminism will be discussed.
As the film is set in the mid-1950s this …show more content…
There was a massive movement in America at this point, the
African-Americans were in the spotlight for racial inequality and discrimination.
In the upper west side of New York city it was classed as the ethnic blue-collar neighbourhood.
Stephan Sondheim, the lyricist, was brought up in the upper west side of Manhattan amongst the blue collar society and gang warfare which is where the inspiration of its synopsis and setting has come from. In ethnic neighbourhoods there was a lot of people that were in the working class that conducted manual labour jobs, which involved jobs like warehouse work, maintenance, sanitation, mining etc. The choreographer, Jerome Robbins, was born in the lower east side of Manhattan which is where a lot of immigrants settled and joined the American society, for example the
Puerto Ricans. This could have been his influence in choreography, keeping two separate ethnic groups separate encouraging them to not socialise with one another and opening the audiences eyes to the reality of gang violence within society. Gangs mainly fought over territory of land, in
West Side Story the gangs were split into the Puerto Ricans (Sharks) and the Americans …show more content…
She sees that male gender as far more desirable, instead of depicting gender variance or even trans-character, the Jets view her as a defective female. Some of the Jets taunt her so that no one would want to sleep with her.
According to society and to the Jets, a woman 's status is dependent on their beauty, sexuality and desirability. In the ‘Tonight’, Maria is on top of the balcony and Tony is at the bottom of the balcony shouting for Maria. This is also a similar setting to Romeo and Juliet, where they are on a balcony. In both
Romeo and Juliet and in West Side Story they both proclaim their forbidden love as they are both
‘star-cross lovers’. Tragedy is a common theme in West Side Story and in Romeo and Juliet; the lovers were forced to take their own lives or to be killed because of the fate and the actions of others. In Romeo and Juliet, one of the characters who is partly responsible deaths of both Romeo and Juliet is Tybalt. Tybalt enrages Romeo and causes him to kill Tybalt, this brings out Romeo’s exile from Verona. If this did not happen, Romeo would have heard Friar Lawrence’s plan to keep
Juliet from getting married. If he had known of the plan, he would not have gone to the vault