It started with a different name. East Side Story. In the late 1940s, Jerome Robbins approached Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents with a concept about a conflict between a Jewish family and a Catholic family during the Easter-Passover season. It felt timely then. But then it sat on a shelf for years. When they finally dusted it off, the headlines had shifted. Juvenile delinquency was the new moral panic. The "shook-up generation" was dominating the news cycle, and suddenly, the west side story original we know today began to take shape, trading religious pews for the gritty, asphalt-covered playground of the Upper West Side.
The Raw Energy of 1957
You’ve gotta realize how much of a risk this was. Musicals in the fifties were usually bright, sugary, and full of "happily ever afters." Then came these kids in sneakers.
When the show premiered at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 26, 1957, it didn't just break the rules; it ignored them entirely. People weren't used to seeing gang violence choreographed to ballet-influenced jazz. Jerome Robbins, who was famously difficult to work with, demanded a level of realism that bordered on psychological warfare. He actually kept the actors playing the Sharks and the Jets separated during rehearsals to brew real-life tension. It worked.
The music? Bernstein was playing with fire. He used the tritone—the "Diabolus in Musica" or the Devil’s interval—as the foundational motif for the entire score. That unsettling, unresolved "Ma-ri-a" jump? That’s the tritone. It creates a sense of longing and danger that never quite resolves, which is basically the entire theme of the show.
Why the Stage Version Beats the Movies
Look, I love the 1961 film. It won ten Oscars for a reason. And Spielberg’s 2021 version was a visual masterpiece. But the west side story original stage production had something the cameras always seem to dilute: the "Gee, Officer Krupke" placement.
In the 1961 movie, they moved "Gee, Officer Krupke" to earlier in the film. They also moved "I Feel Pretty." In the original stage show, "Krupke" happens after the rumble. After Riff and Bernardo are dead.
Think about that for a second.
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The Jets are standing in the shadows of a murder, and they launch into a vaudevillian, sarcastic song about how the system has failed them. It's incredibly dark. It’s a coping mechanism for trauma. When you move it to before the fight, it's just a funny song about juvenile delinquents. When it's placed where Laurents and Bernstein intended, it’s a searing indictment of social work, the judicial system, and the cycle of poverty.
The Lyrics Sondheim Hated
Stephen Sondheim was only 25 when he got this gig. He actually wanted to write the music too, but Oscar Hammerstein II told him he needed to get his foot in the door. Sondheim famously spent years cringing at some of his own lyrics in the west side story original.
He specifically hated "I Feel Pretty."
He thought Maria, a girl who had just arrived from Puerto Rico and was working in a bridal shop, wouldn't use words like "enticing" or "alarming." He felt it was too "wordy" and sophisticated for the character’s background. But the public didn't care. It became a hit. Sometimes the "expert" is wrong about their own work.
Breaking Down the 1957 Casting
It's a weird piece of history. The original Broadway cast didn't have a single Puerto Rican actor in a lead role. Chita Rivera, who was a force of nature as Anita, was of Puerto Rican descent through her father, but Larry Kert (Tony) and Carol Lawrence (Maria) were not.
This is the complexity of looking back at 1957.
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The show was revolutionary for bringing Latin rhythms—the mambo, the huapango—to the forefront of American culture, yet it was still being told through a very specific, outsiders' lens. Bernstein’s score is a miracle of hybridity. He took the "cool jazz" sound of the fifties and smashed it into Spanish symphonic structures.
The Set That Wasn't There
The original production relied heavily on Oliver Smith’s skeletal sets. It wasn't about literal brick walls. It was about fire escapes that looked like cages. The lighting, designed by Jean Rosenthal, used harsh angles to make the stage feel like a high-pressure cooker.
In a theater, you can't rely on close-ups. You rely on the silhouette.
When the Jets walk down the street in the opening "Prologue," they aren't just walking. They are reclaiming territory with every snap of their fingers. That's the power of the west side story original. It used dance as a literal weapon. If a dancer missed a mark, the "violence" looked like a joke. If they hit it, it felt like a stabbing.
The Ending Most People Forget
In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, everyone dies. In the west side story original, Maria lives.
That is arguably more tragic.
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She is left in that playground, holding a gun, screaming at both sides that they killed Tony with their hate. The curtain falls on her walking away, draped in a shawl, a shell of the girl who was singing about being "pretty" just hours before. The show refuses to give you the catharsis of a double suicide. You have to sit with the survivor’s guilt.
How to Experience the Original Today
If you want to understand why this show changed theater forever, don't just watch the clips.
- Listen to the 1957 Original Broadway Cast Recording: The tempo is faster. It’s more jagged. Larry Kert’s "Something’s Coming" has a nervous energy that Richard Beymer or Ansel Elgort can't quite replicate.
- Read the Libretto: Arthur Laurents’ dialogue is stylized "street talk" that he invented so it wouldn't go out of style. He avoided real fifties slang so it wouldn't sound dated. It’s poetic and rhythmic.
- Study the Choreography Notes: If you can find the Robbins "Symphonic Dances" notations, do it. Every finger snap is a beat.
The west side story original wasn't trying to be a pretty movie. It was a scream against the urban decay of the 1950s. It was messy, it was loud, and honestly, it was a bit dangerous.
Real Insights for the Modern Fan
If you're digging into the history, check out the Library of Congress archives for Leonard Bernstein’s sketches. You can see where he crossed out melodies that were "too pretty" and replaced them with dissonant notes. He wanted the audience to feel uncomfortable.
The best way to respect the legacy is to acknowledge both its genius and its flaws. It paved the way for Hamilton, for In the Heights, and for every "concept musical" that followed. It proved that the "musical" could be a serious art form capable of tackling racism, police brutality, and the failure of the American Dream.
Next time you hear that opening whistle, remember it wasn't recorded in a high-tech studio with digital enhancement. It was a man on a stage in 1957, warning the audience that things were about to get ugly.
Next Steps for the Deep Researcher
Go to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. They hold the Jerome Robbins papers. You can see his original rehearsal notes where he literally mapped out the "territory" of the stage for the Jets and the Sharks. It’s the closest you’ll get to the raw, unedited heartbeat of the production that changed everything.