West Side Story Musical Analysis

“I feel pretty. Oh, so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and gay. And I pity any girl who isn’t me tonight”. One of the most popular songs from the world wide successful musical West Side Story. The book was written by Arthur Laurents. Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and Music by Leonard Bernstein. The star Maria who moved from Puerto Rico to live in New York wasn’t feeling pretty all the time. It was a temporary joy when she decided to love the American sharks gang member Tony. Her love lead to many major problems that she might have been able to avoid if she loved a man who was a Puerto Rican, this will let her family feel safe having him around their young daughter. Therefore, love sometimes brings you more trouble than you might expect.

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Tony is known among his gang members as the good boy the only one who have a job. He promised the storeowner to clean up the store that’s why he can’t accepts Ref’s offer for coming to the dance against the sharks. It took him a long time to decide. But what if Ref would ask him to quit his job, will he agree? Impossible. But what if quitting his job and moving out of the city meant a secure place and happiness for his love? He is willing to do it with no regrets. He can only sacrifices his job for one person only. Tony not only quitted his job but also barrowed money from the storeowner where he works. He need the money for the trip where he will take Maria to a safer place and have kids, he promised to return the money as soon as he can to Doc. Maria accidently was the reason for Tony’s death but she didn’t know it. Even though Anita changed her message that she wanted to send it for Tony to protect him from Chino the angry shark member, once they meet on the basketball court Chino shoot Tony twice to death. Love lead to too many problems for Maria.

In the modern era, the same question pops up. Is love the answer to all of our problems? We are drawn to the musical that ends happy, yet not all love stories are pretty. Unlike the musical theater Beautiful where the songwriter got married to her dream husband and she started to write top hit sound tracks. I feel like this is important in the musical theater history for its message being delivered.