During the fifteenth and into the seventeenth century, Northern Italy was a vibrant commercial center located in a strategic area of the Mediterranean, a region which at that time was important for east-west commerce. It was also the scene of both a revival of Classical learning and art, the Renaissance, and the flourishing of new forms of artistic expression as seen in the work of Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo Da Vinci, Botticelli and others; artistic achievements which would have a lasting impact on Western Civilization. It was also during this period that modern science began to take shape with advances in geography, mathematics, anatomy, and astronomy, as well as achievements in engineering and technology in which Northern Italy played a part.

It was in that dynamic context that humanism developed, an intellectual and artistic movement which directed attention away from the divine and the supernatural, which had been the preoccupation of the Middle Ages, and toward human beings, their strength and dignity and the tragedies that often befell them, a perspective which was a part of the revival of the concerns of Classical Antiquity which became a decisive influence on later artistic taste and styles. In literature, Italian writers borrowed motifs of idealized love from medieval troubadours for the composition of their own romantic poetry and stories. Politically, Northern Italy was divided into independent city-states, which were often at war with one another, each with its internal partisan strife, and with a long-standing tradition of vendettas among prominent families and their servants with family honor at stake, a tradition the city authorities had difficulty dealing with.

The story of two unlucky lovers caught up in one of those vendettas was written by Luigi Da Porto (1485-1529) and published posthumously in 1531 under the title Newly Found Story of Two Noble Lovers. The story was about the feuding Capelletti and the Montecchi families, which Dante had mentioned in his writings. The drama was set in Verona, where one can visit today a thirteenth century house once inhabited by a family named Capello, and see there the balcony (added in the twentieth century), which is billed for tourists as the place where some of the romantic action of the famous love story took place. In 1554 Matteo Bandello (1480-1562) wrote his version of the story which Arthur Brooke published in English in 1554 with the title The Tragicalle Historye of Romeo and Juliet. This version became the main source for Shakespeare's adaptation for the stage. In Shakespeare's play, written in verse, the feuding families are called the Capulets and the Montagues. In the story, the Capulets host a ball that Romeo attends, uninvited, where he and Juliet fall in love. In the famous balcony scene, Juliet reveals that she is willing to give up her position in her family to be together with Romeo when she says, "O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet."

Shakespeare's play has been performed countless times over the centuries and has been the theme of musical interpretations such as Tchaikovsky's Fantasy Overture, "Romeo and Juliet," Prokofiev's music for the ballet of the same name, and Berlioz's composition with orchestra, chorus, and individual voices. The play has been filmed numerous times in the original version, and in modernized adaptations. In the 1950s, the story was made into a musical titled West Side Story. It was conceived by Jerome Robbins who directed and choreographed the production, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim based on Arthur Laurent's adaptation of the tragic story of the two young lovers. After seven hundred and thirty-two performances on Broadway, the production went on tour and has been performed in revivals in the United States and abroad. In 1958, it was nominated for the Best Musical Tony Award, losing to The Music Man, but winning for choreography as well as scenic design.

The choice of New York for the stage musical setting is quite appropriate, for New York, like the Renaissance Italian city-states, became an important center of commerce by virtue of its location, and in the process grew into a vibrant cultural center. Like those earlier city-states, New York was the scene of political machinations and strife. The rivalry there, in which the story takes place, was not between prominent families, but rather between street gangs composed of the immigrant population that came to the city in great numbers during the nineteenth century. The earliest of those poor newcomers were the Irish fleeing famine in their homeland. Later in the century came Poles, Italians and Jews from Eastern Europe. The earliest of the gangs were those from Irish neighborhoods. During the 1820s and 1850s, a gang known as the Forty Thieves became active as an organized crime ring. In the 1850s, the Irish Dead Rabbits was organized in the Five Points area and became the bitter rivals of the nativist, anti-Catholic and anti-Irish Bowery Boys from the Bowery neighborhood of Manhattan. Those gangs became embroiled in the corrupt politics of the city that led to the Dead Rabbits Riot of 1857.

The Day Break Boys, active during the 1840s and 1850s, was another criminal enterprise from the Five Points area. It recruited teenage Irish immigrants as its members, and some say that the new recruits were admitted only after having killed someone. The dominant street gang from the 1860s through the 1890s were the Whyos, a collection of predominately Irish post-Civil War gangs that dominated Manhattan until the 1890s. Others were the Five Points Gang, a fusion of gangs under the leadership of the Italian gangster Paul Kelly (born Paolo Antonio Vaccarelli), and in the 1890s the Eastman Gang led by Jewish mobster Monk Eastman, an organization that also teamed up with corrupt politicians. These rival gang engaged in open street fights. It was from that environment that such gangsters as Al Capon, Lucky Luciano, and Meyer Lansky rose to prominence.

From the 1950s through the 1980s, a wave of Puerto Rican immigrants entered the city, which added a new element to the now assimilating ethnic mix, and from which arose other street gangs. The creators of West Side Story at first considered the Jewish-Catholic rivalry as the basis for their version of Romeo and Juliet, but they settled on the contemporary rivalry between Puerto Ricans and an amalgamation of assimilated Irish, Italian, and Poles. They called the Puerto Rican gang the Sharks, and the rival gang the Jets. Tony, the counterpart to Romeo, is of Polish extraction, and Maria, Juliet, has recently arrived from Puerto Rico.

The music depicts the excitement, the tension, and the sentimental phases in the story, and the extended dance scenes accompanying the singing add a vibrant dimension to the performance. The score by Leonard Bernstein has been described as innovative for its fusion blend of different genres: jazz, Broadway musical, Latin, and some classical. Another innovation was the choreography whose effect has been described as driving the narrative and which is a blend of jazz and ballet, a departure from the tradition of the Broadway musical. The 1961 film was directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise and starred Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood. It was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and was awarded ten, one for the best picture of the year.

One scene in the 1961 film version features a song, "America," played in a Latin tempo during a spirited dance scene. It deals with the virtues and the drawbacks for Puerto Rican immigrants in the United States, with the young women singing of its benefits while the young men emphasize the drawbacks. Another scene deals with the relationship between the Jets and the authorities represented by Lt. Schrank (Simon Oakland) and Sgt. Krupke (William Bramley) of the New York City Police Department. In this scene, after the two policemen have left, the Jets mock Krupke and what the authority represents by pretending in one of the songs to be speaking to the officer, mocking all the cliches of social workers of that day, ending with the phrase, "Officer Krupke, krup you!"

In the original version, Romeo and Juliet meet and fall in love at a dance. A dance is also the scene where Tony and Maria meet, an event organized by social workers in a vain attempt to bring the two sides together. The dance starts mildly enough, but the couples from the two groups quickly separate. In the 1961 film, when Maria and Tony see each other, the surrounding action melts into the background as the two come together. The famous balcony of Shakespeare's play is here the fire escape of a tenement and the scene of one of its most notable songs, "Tonight." The song is sung as a duet in which Tony and Maria tell of the ecstasy of finding one another, "I saw you and the world went away." Maria confides her love for Tony to her friends in the song "I Feel Pretty."

After trying to stop a rumble between the Sharks and the Jets, Tony is forced into stabbing Maria's brother, Bernardo (George Chakiris), the leader of the Sharks. When he and Maria meet, after she has learned the awful news, they sing the duet "Somewhere" also known as "There's a Place for Us," a song with an initial phrase taken from the slow movement from Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with a later phrase from Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake. The music and lyrics express the longing of the young lovers for some place removed from the strife of the city, a place far away where together they might find peace and happiness: "There’s a place for us. A time and place for us. Hold my hand and we're halfway there. Someday! Somewhere!"

In the 1961 film version, Maria sings a few bars of the song as Tony dies in her arms. Stephen Spielberg's 2021 version of the musical has preserved the essential elements of the 1961 production, but with some changes. One is an emphasis on the Latin element as heard in the use of Spanish in the dialogue and the Spanish pronunciation of the Puerto Ricans, which gives their ethnic origin more authenticity. Another is the introduction of a new character, Valentina (Rita Moreno), who replaces the drug store owner Doc (Ned Glass) in the original. Valentina is Doc's widow who sings "Somewhere" on a nostalgic note in front of a picture of Doc. In this way, the song loses its effect as a part of the unfolding story. But it is interesting that the actress playing Valentina is Rita Moreno, now in her nineties, who played Anita, Bernardo's girlfriend and the friend of Maria whose signature piece in the 1961 version was the song "America."

Some reviews have praised the 2021 version, one writing that this is an old story that responds well to modern sensitivities with some updates. For example, the minor character Balthasar, in the Shakespeare play, is a servant of Romeo who acted as his informant. In the Broadway version and the 1961 film, this character is Anybodys (Susan Oakes), a tomboy who would like to be a member of the Jets, but who settles for acting as their spy. In the 2021 film version, Anybodys (Iris Menas) has gone from tomboy to a trans-character described as "trans-masculine" and "non-binary."

Some, however, are not satisfied with the way Puerto Ricans are depicted. They would prefer to turn the rivalry of two gangs into a story about how the Puerto Ricans have suffered from "American colonialism," an expected response in this age of political correctness and identity politics. But that trend is played out in one scene of the 2021 version: the confrontation between the Jets and Anita in front of Doc's store after Bernard's death, where Anita (Ariana DeBose) is cruelly treated. In the Spielberg version, dialogue has been added asking whether, after all that she has suffered, Anita still wants to be an American. She responds to the harassment by saying, "You think I want to be here in a city of ugly little animals like you?" She then answers her own question in Spanish by saying, "Yo soy Puertorriquena" ("I'm Puerto Rican"). This statement places the emphasis, now in vogue, on diversity and division rather than on eventual unity, which was a feature of the original play and its 1961 film adaptation.

Shakespeare's play ends with the death of both lovers, which finally brings the feuding families together. West Side Story ends not with the death of both Tony and Maria, but only with the death of Tony. Like the original version, both films end with the two gangs coming together, joining to carry Tony's body away with a grieving Maria following them. One can interpret this oft-told tale from the Renaissance, set in New York City of the twentieth century and now the twenty-first century, as a metaphor for the American experience, where waves of immigrants have come to these shores to encounter hardship and hostility along with opportunities for success, immigrants who are different in their ways, but who may eventually merge to form a vibrant and unified nation.     

September 2026

From guest contributor Glynn Custred, Professor Emeritus at California State University, East Bay

Photo by Adam Jones