West Side Story. Theatre Under the Stars. October 24-November 5, 2006
Created in 1949, the magnificent musical, West Side Story, would set a standard for modern musicals that remains unsurpassed today. Choreographer Jerome Robbins developed a concept for a musical, modern telling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, where the young lovers were lower East Side dwellers with their families in religious conflict. After years of delays, East Side Story became West Side Story and the conflict became racial versus religious. The New York Times in 1957 called "the finest achievement of the musical stage" for that year.
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