“When love comes so strong, there is no right or wrong. Your love is your life.”
"West Side Story," the American phenomenon widely regarded as one of greatest love stories of all time, opened at the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway in 1957... almost 60 years ago.
It was the antithesis of the traditional American musical.
Originally conceived, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, "West Side Story" was Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" in disguise: a subtly urban twist of a classic tale. The story was set in an ethnic, blue-collar New York City neighborhood in the Upper West Side. While warring street gangs were strategically used in place of Shakespeare's feuding families, a Puerto Rican girl named Maria, whose brother is in one gang, falls in love with Tony, who's in the opposing "American" gang.
Debuting one day after the forced integration of Central High School in Little Rock, the musical’s story of racial conflict was off-putting to most. "West Side Story" won just two Tony Awards, for choreography and set design, but made an impressive maiden run of 732 performances.
'West Side Story,' 1957. (Fred Fehl, Museum of the City of New York / Getty Images)
"That kind of bigotry and prejudice was very much in the air," writer and co-creator Arthur Laurents says of the 1950s.
"It's really, 'How can love survive in a violent world of prejudice?' That's what it's about."
In 1961, the film version starring Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer was an enormous hit, and took home 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Powerful, Poignant, and Timely As Ever
It is no shock that Paper Mill Playhouse, recipient of the 2016 Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre, took to producing the crowd favorite. However, in this seminal retelling of the tragic love story, Producing Artistic Director Mark Hoebee speaks of his truth behind revisiting the half-a-century-old musical.
"The themes that were told in 1957..." he asserts, "haven't changed unfortunately. Think about what's happening in the world today. There is still a lesson to learn."
In the 1957 Broadway production, the book's use of street slang, a dark urban landscape, and the subject of gang warfare were all firsts for this genre. Terms like "spic," "PR," etc. are thrown viciously by the Jets to describe Puerto Rican immigrants seeking the American Dream. The Jets mock the Sharks for being "un-American" due to their cultural roots, unworthy of achieving anything better than minimal wage, and unfit for equality.
Unfortunately, the 21st century is plagued with the same kind of ignorance — individuals who wholeheartedly believe they are superior than other citizens due to their race, religion, gender, etc.
The current Republican presidential nominee preaches to his people that all Mexican immigrants are "rapists" and "criminals," and that all Muslims should be profiled and "surveillanced."
Hostility, bigotry, prejudice, racism, stereotypes, profiling, Islamophobia, homophobia…all deeply rooted in fear.
Because of this mindset, our world continues to remain unsafe... and unfortunately, another day on this earth is never guaranteed.
One day, you visit the movie theatre on a day off, or maybe you go partying at the club with your best friends.
One day, you wake up early and go to school, backpack and a lunch prepared by mom and dad in tow.
One day, you head over to today's marathon, your greatest achievement to date.
One day, you take the train in to the city to work in one of the largest buildings in the United States.
The next, you are gone.
More than just a gritty story and volatile dance sequences, "West Side Story" rides with a "catastrophic roar over the spider-web fire-escapes, shadowed frameworks, and the plain dirt battlegrounds of a big city feud." Tensions remain high among the city youth, emotions cut deep, and we see much of today’s bigotry in the infamous tragedy.
Just replace the Sharks and Jets with the feuding, hateful groups of today.
The heart-wrenching struggle to survive in a world of hate, violence and prejudice remains more relevant than ever.
