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 was originally intended for Cunegonde in "Candide". The music of "Gee, Officer Krupke" was pulled from the Venice scene in "Candide". Laurents explained the style that the creative team finally decided on: The show was nearly complete in the fall of 1956, but almost everyone on the creative team needed to fulfill other commitments first. Robbins was involved with "Bells Are Ringing", then Bernstein with "Candide", and in January 1957 "A Clearing in the Woods", Laurents' latest play, opened and quickly closed. When a backers' audition failed to raise any money for "West Side Story" late in the spring of