Extra Credit #2

Emma Pacheco

Professor Flack

English 6

Extra Credit

 Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” vs. William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”

I am a movie fanatic and once I realized that there are so many films that get influenced by Shakespearean plays to attract to a different kind of audience. What better adaption than Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story.” It was influenced by the plot of star-crossed lovers, but was set in New York City during the 20^th century. The battle is not only of class but also about racial tension where we follow the story of two teenagers that can’t fall in love due to the racial tension in New York. Tony, who is the parallel to Romeo, used to belong to a gang called the Jets; while Maria, who is the parallel to Juliet, is a Puerto Rican immigrant whose family members belong to the street gang the Sharks. These street gangs not only parallel the sparring families of the Montague’s and the Capulet’s, the main characters fall in love at a party that hosts both groups.  In addition, they adapted the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet by having Tony serenade Maria at the fire escape of her apartment.

This rendition has a lot of similarities and differences to the original but the main theme is brought about of the “forbidden love.” Although it is a musical, the setting that West side story was put in seemed more realistic of the tension that rises due to culture clash. It brought awareness to the prejudices of the time and since racial tensions were one of the biggest things during the 80’s in New York it brought those issues to light.  In the same way that Shakespeare would illustrate real themes that reflected controversial themes of his lifetime. It was illustrated with the Bernardo, Maria’s brother killing Riff who represents Mercutio, and out of anger kills Bernardo paralleling the death of Tybalt by Romeo. Even though the death of Bernardo brings a strain to Maria and Romeo’s relationship, they still decide to run away together. In the end both stories still follow the idea of a fake death of Maria(Juliet) to escape with their true love. Just as Romeo commits suicide, Tony seeks out Chino hoping to be murdered to follow his love. The essence of the story is still demonstrated throughout this whole story.

However, the ending of this love story is taken in a different light with only Tony being killed. His death in the arms of his loved one seemed more realistic, and Maria’s denouncement of violence is a lot more powerful for them to end their ways of hatred without having Maria committing suicide as well. It demonstrates the tragedy from both sides because it shows the consequences o gang violence for the innocents. Although many people don’t like musicals, I really loved this adaption and was able to see a more refreshing adaption and still see the themes of forbidden love, foolish lovers, and cultural clashes in this modern adaption of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”