West Side Story (film) Brittany Snow and Drake Bell. West Side Story (film) West Side Story is a 1961 American romantic musical tragedy film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. The film is an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was inspired by William Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet". It stars Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, and George Chakiris, and was photographed by Daniel L. Fapp, A.S.C., in Super Panavision 70. Released on October 18, 1961, through United Artists, the film received high praise from critics and viewers, and became the second highest
West Side Story Tribune" on September 27, 1957: The other reviews generally joined in speculation about how the new work would influence the course of musical theater. Typical was John Chapman's review in the "New York Daily News" on September 27, 1957, headed: "West Side Story a Splendid and Super-Modern Musical Drama". "Time" magazine found the dance and gang warfare more compelling than the love story and noted that the show's "putting choreography foremost, may prove a milestone in musical-drama history ..." The score for "West Side Story" was orchestrated by Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal following detailed instructions from Bernstein, who then