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
Kenton's West Side Story heavily relied upon to carry the day. In no way does the LP accomplish the same things the later Kenton Grammy winning LP "Adventures In Jazz" achieves. It is understandable why the general public (vs a hard core jazz audience) was willing to readily accept "Kenton's West Side Story" propelling it to such high ratings with Billboard during 1961 and 1962. As a jazz soloist on trumpet, Conte Candoli is a shining star on the sessions. He backed his way onto the "Kenton's West Side Story" LP due to the failure of Ernie Berhardt to fill the trumpet solo slots