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 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