West Side Story (film) 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 grossing film of the year
West Side Story the credits of "West Side Story" during the tryout, presumably as a trade-off. However, Suskin writes in "Show Tunes" that "As the writing progressed and the extent of Bernstein's lyric contributions became less, the composer agreed to rescind his credit...Contrary to rumor, Sondheim did not write music for the show; his only contribution came on "Something's Coming", where he developed the main strain of the chorus from music Bernstein wrote for the verse.) Two rival teenage gangs, the Jets (White Americans) and the Sharks (Puerto Rican Americans), struggle for control of their neighborhood on the Upper West Side of New