West Side Story 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 ethnic, blue-collar neighborhood (in the early 1960s, much of the neighborhood was cleared in an urban renewal project for Lincoln Center, which changed the neighborhood's character). The musical explores the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. The members of
West Side Story on in the 1961 movie that we are focusing on." Ansel Elgort has been cast as Tony in the film. In addition to Bernstein's own "West Side Story Suite", the music from the musical has been adapted by The Buddy Rich Big Band, which arranged and recorded "West Side Story Medley" on the 1966 album "Buddy Rich's Swingin' New Big Band". The Stan Kenton Orchestra recorded Johnny Richards' 1961 "Kenton's West Side Story", an album of jazz orchestrations based on the Bernstein scores. It won the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Recording by a Large Group. The 1996 album