West side Story Review

                               West side story review

History 
West Side Story is a musical with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and conception and choreography by Jerome Robbins. 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 neighbourhood (in the early 1960s much of the neighbourhood would be cleared in an urban renewal project for the Lincoln Center, changing the neighbourhood's character).The musical explores the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. The members of the Sharks, from Puerto Rico, are taunted by the Jets, a white gang.The young protagonist, Tony, a former member of the Jets and best friend of the gang leader, Riff, falls in love with Maria, the sister of Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks. The dark theme, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, and focus on social problems marked a turning point in American musical theatre. Bernstein's score for the musical includes "Something's Coming", "Maria", "America", "Somewhere", "Tonight", "Jet Song", "I Feel Pretty", "A Boy Like That", "One Hand, One Heart", "Gee, Officer Krupke", and "Cool".

Theme 

Westside story based on Gang war, hatred, violence and rRace ect. The Jets are white. The Sharks are Puerto Rican. West Side Story's first and foremost a love story, but the themes of immigration and racism seethe below the surface.

 Revenge

 Bernardo killed Riff but then Tony killed Bernardo and Chino killed Tony. Lieutenant Schrank would like to see the whole lot of them locked up.

Revenge is what drives the violence in the film. The audience arrives in the middle of an ongoing turf war that leads to one reprisal after another and keeps the cycle of violence alive and well. It's impossible to know where it really began, and it probably doesn't matter. Young men still die in the streets by the thousands because of this kind of senseless payback cycle—you can read about in the newspapers or watch the news every single day.

Love

 Tony and Maria fall in love with each other and hope that both of their friends and family will expect their relationship and be civil with each other 

Bernardo is in a relationship with Anita, both of them are really protective over Maria, they don't want her to go near the Jets or even communicate with them. 

In the beginning of the story, there's love but mostly hate towards both gangs and towards the end, the hatred turns into death, both gangs lose someone close to them and regret what they're started.

Riff, Tony and Bernardo dies for fighting for what they thought was right, instead of being civil with each other, they've decided it was best to fight and proof that they're own the streets.

 Loyalty

Sharks and Jets are both loyal to each other, no matter what situation they're in, they're take their group serious and also protective with each other and always look out for any trouble that comes to them. Gangs always have an agreement before doing something or going somewhere, just in case there's trouble. 

 Society and class 

They're all poor. They're powerless. And while they fight over ownership of those streets, the real forces of power—the cops and the higher-ups represented by said cops—remind them that they can get squashed like bugs anytime the Man feels like it. Jets mostly chill outside, day and night while the Sharks trying to fit in and make a living for themselves. Both gangs don't have a lot of money and they're live in a small place. 

All of these themes still involved in today's society, there's still gangs violences going in the different country and there's different race moving to a different country because of war or they're want to move for another reason, there's a lot of things going on in this society.

Characters

• Riff, the leader

• Tony, his friend, who falls in love with Maria

• Action, A-Rab, Baby John, Big Deal, Diesel, Gee-Tar, Mouthpiece, Snowboy, Tiger and Anybodys

The Jets' Girls

• Graziella, 
• Velma, Minnie, Clarice
•  Pauline

The Sharks

• Bernardo, the leader
• Chino, his friend
• Pepe, Indio, Luis, Anxious, Nibbles, Juano, Toro and Moose

The Sharks' Girls

• Maria, Bernardo's sister, who falls in love with Tony
• Anita, Bernardo's girl
• Rosalia, Consuelo, Teresita, Francisca, Estella and Marguerita

The Adults

• Doc, 
• Schrank, 
• Krupke  
• Glad Hand