by Arnoldhenryrufus

Created on: March 01, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

~~ WEST SIDE STORY ~~

I would like to say this is a modern day Romeo and Juliet and I suppose it is, if you think back to when Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet, but in fact the film is now 44 years old and it was nominated for 11 Oscars which it won 10 of.

West Side Story (Stage show), premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York in 1957, where it had a very successful run of 77 weeks. After its successful time on the stage, the movie went into production in August 1960, the full cast having to complete 2 months of gruelling rehearsals prior to production. So look out next year as it will be the Golden Anniversary of West Side Story and I should imagine they will re-release a special edition to celebrate it.

Originally the movie version was only going to take 3 weeks to make, but instead it took months and Premiered in October 1961. Why did it take so long, well, Jerome Robbins who was one of the two directors on the movie, was a perfectionist when it came to the dance routines, he pushed all the cast beyond their own expectations and achieved fantastic results on the dance scenes. But sadly of the way through the movie the men with the money sacked Robbins so they could finish the film quicker, they did reinstate Robbins though at the end to help with the editing of the movie. For your information the other Director on the movie was Robert Wise.

~~ Cast ~~

Maria - Natalie Wood - She was the 2nd choice for the part, the original choice was for Audrey Hepburn, who declined the part due to being pregnant. So we have a young and very beautiful Natalie Wood playing the part of Maria, to me she played the part very well, from what I have read she hated her on screen partner Richard Brymer (Tony), but on the emotional scenes you would never have guessed. She wanted to do all the songs herself, but sadly her voice was not strong enough for the songs or at least the directors thought so and they brought in Marni Nixon who did all the songs on voice over for Maria (she was also known for the voice over songs in the King and I for Deborah Kerr and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady).

Sorry I digressed to technical info again, back to Maria - she is Puerto Rican and the young sister of the gang leader of the Sharks. Going out to her first dance she meets Tony and it is love at first sight, where you have the romantic look across the Gym at the local dance. They are quickly torn apart by the two gang leaders.

Tony - Richard Beymer - Our Romeo in this movie, as just stated it was

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