West Side Story Themes

It wouldn't be a Romeo and Juliet riff if it didn't talk about love, and frankly, this Tony-Maria couple is one of the most "aww"-inducing we've ever seen. Tony and Maria start out on different sid...

When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way. And the Sharks have plenty of loyalty on their own side as well. It works, but it leads to a lot of conflict. Most of the Big Moments in West Side Story...

The Sharks started it. No, the Jets started it. But Bernardo killed Riff. Right, but then Tony killed Bernardo and Chino killed Tony. Lieutenant Schrank would like to see the whole lot of 'em locke...

The Jets and the Sharks may be dueling over their particular little piece of turf, but in point of fact they're all losers in that game. They're all poor. They're powerless. And while they fight ov...

Kids these days…Romeo and Juliet is about the folly of youth: how everything is so new and fresh and intense that you end up doing foolish things like stabbing yourself when that boy you met a we...

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. The song "America," in part, i...