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Did you know that the original idea that eventually turned into West Side Story was an updated Romeo and Juliet, about a Jewish girl and an Irish boy falling in love during Pesach/Holy Week, and it would have been titled East Side Story?
It sounds like something between an urban legend and a joke, and I wouldn't believe it myself, except that, several years back, Lis and I were having a vacation in New York City, and the New York Public Library had an exhibition of Leonard Bernstein's papers, which included a brief treatment of the idea.
The idea was shelved for several years, and, when Bernstein, Laurents, and Robbins re-thought it, there was a lot of news about Chicano gangs in LA, so they started thinking about the Hispanic community, which, for one thing, would let them throw in some Latin-influenced music. But they decided to stick with New York, and went with Puerto Rican and Italian gangs.
It sounds like something between an urban legend and a joke, and I wouldn't believe it myself, except that, several years back, Lis and I were having a vacation in New York City, and the New York Public Library had an exhibition of Leonard Bernstein's papers, which included a brief treatment of the idea.
The idea was shelved for several years, and, when Bernstein, Laurents, and Robbins re-thought it, there was a lot of news about Chicano gangs in LA, so they started thinking about the Hispanic community, which, for one thing, would let them throw in some Latin-influenced music. But they decided to stick with New York, and went with Puerto Rican and Italian gangs.