West Side Story based loosely on "West Side Story" and adapting parts of the musical's music and lyrics, was performed a total of more than 500 times in Miami Beach, Florida, Stockholm, Gran Canaria and Los Angeles. The show lampoons the musical's tragic love story, and also lip-synching and drag shows. West Side Story West Side Story is a musical with book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. It was inspired by William Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet". The story is set in the Upper West Side neighborhood in New York City in the mid 1950s, an
West Side Story in touch with Bernstein, who had returned to New York. When the producer of "The Painted Veil" replaced Gardner with Eleanor Parker and asked Laurents to revise his script with her in mind, he backed out of the film, freeing him to devote all his time to the stage musical. In New York City, Laurents went to the opening night party for a new play by Ugo Betti, and there he met Sondheim, who had heard that "East Side Story", now retitled "West Side Story", was back on track. Bernstein had decided he needed to concentrate solely on the music,