Deaf Side Story the problems having to get hearing members of the audience to understand the Sharks’ signing in their scenes. Rigney follows Brewer on how it all started and the challenges they all faced. Deaf Side Story Deaf Side Story is a musical based on "West Side Story", itself an adaptation of William Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet". Takes place in New York City during the mid-1950s, the musical based on West Side Story explores the rivalry between the two gangs Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different cultural backgrounds (Deaf and Hearing). The members of the Sharks from
West Side Story co-author of the lyrics, although Sondheim was uncertain he wanted to receive sole credit for what he considered to be overly florid contributions by Bernstein. Robbins demanded and received a "Conceived by" credit, and used it to justify his making major decisions regarding changes in the show without consulting the others. As a result, by opening night on Broadway, none of his collaborators were talking to him. It has been rumored that while Bernstein was off trying to fix the musical "Candide", Sondheim wrote some of the music for "West Side Story", and that Bernstein's co-lyricist billing mysteriously disappeared from