West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet are both classics in their own way, they both are loved by many different groups and ages, over a long period of time. West Side Story is set in New York during the 1950’s, meanwhile Romeo and Juliet takes place Verona around 1530. Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy is written as a play with iambic pentameter throughout. While, West Side Story is a musical filled with singing and dancing. But can music truly capture the unyielding love, hatred, and sadness as told in the story of Romeo and Juliet? Director Robert Wise did just that, but modernized Shakespeare’s classic tale. Wise’s portrayal of Romeo and Juliet had characters with roles that fulfilled Shakespeare’s characters, faced the same social pressures, …show more content…
In West Side Story, the Jets represent the Montagues, and Tony is on their side representing Romeo. On the other hand, the Sharks act for the Capulets, with sweet Maria playing Juliet’s part. In the musical, Maria and Tony showcase their love to each other just as strong as Shakespeare’s play. Their portrayal of Romeo and Juliet captures the never ending love between the star-crossed lovers. Romeo’s good friend, Benvolio, has a calm and peaceful nature which is shown when he tries to prevent fights between the Capulet and the Montagues (Shakespeare). His personality and actions are strongly represented in Baby John’s character, when he is asked questions about the fight and later on when he speaks his mind about how fighting the Sharks is not a good idea (West Side Story). Continuing, another close friend of both Romeo and Benvolio is witty Mercutio. With a quick temper, Mercutio is never afraid to draw his sword, and will always be there for Romeo. This is shown when he tries to help Romeo get over Rosaline by bringing him to Capulet’s ball, and when he fights Tybalt in place for Romeo (Shakespeare). Tony’s close pal, Riff, seems to do the same things. Riff is the leader of the Sharks, who will whip out his switchblade just as fast as Mercutio can draw out his sword. Riff begs Tony to come to the dance where he might meet a girl, and fights in Tony’s spot during the rumble (West Side …show more content…
In Romeo and Juliet the couple meets at a ball that is being held by Juliet’s father. Maria and Tony first lay eyes on each other at a dance-off, very similar to Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting. In both stories the two sides weren’t happy that they bumped into each other, but this didn’t matter to either pair of star-crossed lovers. They managed to find each other in the crowd, and knew from that moment on that they were in love. Romeo and Juliet got to hide in the shadows and talk to each other, but it was only brief (Shakespeare). While Maria and Tony only exchanged a few words before being separated by the rival gangs, but their words were filled with the same love (West Side Story). Both the ball and the dance in the gym are necessary to the plot and development of both the play and the musical. West Side Story’s community center dance with the Jets and Sharks is a present-day rendition of the first encounter between Juliet and her
Romeo and Juliet is a play about two lovers who have to risk their lives in order to demonstrate their love and will to stay together, regardless the feud between their families. By the end, the death of Romeo and Juliet finally bring the reconciliation to these two families. It is fate that the two most shall-not meet people fall in love and it love that eventually won against hatred. Since then, there have been many different versions of Romeo and Juliet, whether it was for film, stage, musicals. These different recontextualised adaptions change the original play by many ways, some modernise the language, environment, props as well as changing the original characteristics of some characters. Out of all the different adaptions of Romeo and Juliet, two stood out the most. One was the Romeo and Juliet (1996) and directed by Baz Luhrmann and the other one was Romeo and Juliet Broadway (2013) play version,
Romeo and Juliet, (R&J), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, (AMSND), are two different genres with but have the same basic plot: Two young lovers can’t wed and the girl is to marry another man who is preferred by her father, so the couple meets at night and plans to run away. Both couples have gone against the wishes of their authority figures but it doesn’t end well for Tybalt, Paris, Romeo, or Juliet. R&J is set in Elizabethan times, and the Chain of Being would have been disrupted by their actions.AMSND has fantastical elements that interfere with fate and these elements such as fairies and cupid, would have been understood to be higher on the chain than man by its attendees of the time. Is it the force of celestial bodies that makes R&J a tragedy and AMSND a comedy?
The play West Side Story, by Arthur Laurents, is based upon the play Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare. Despite a few differences, both works, in essence, have the same plot. The source of violence in Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story is the ever-present hatred between families and between gangs, although, because of the "star-cross’d lovers" motif in Romeo and Juliet, the hatred plays a larger role in producing the ending of West Side Story than it does the ending of Romeo and Juliet.
Side Story, Tony (the Romeo of the play) does die - shot by Chino- Maria is not
Musical theatre is a type of theatrical performance combining music, dance, acting and spoken dialogue. Written by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, ‘West Side Story’ is a classic American musical based on William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The through-composed score and lyrics are used to portray different characters and their cultures, the rivalry between the Jets and Sharks, and the emotions felt as the story progresses. This essay will be exploring the music and how effective the score is in realising the world and characters of the musical. Furthermore, it will discuss how Bernstein and Sondheim relate characters’ diverse ethnicities to particular musical ideas and motifs.
Ferocious and threatening personality leads to vengeance and retaliation. This is apparent in the stories of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare which takes place in Verona and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee which has the setting of Maycomb, Alabama. In both the books, certain people are filled with acrimony which leads to hostility and ill will and ultimately their actions contribute towards their end. Likewise, characters in each plot seek revenge and their hatred causes the harm. These authors put forth the idea that being rebellious and violent can backfire.
The archetypal tragedy of two star-crossed lovers, separated by familial hate, is a recurring theme, which never fails to capture the minds of the audience. It is only at great cost, through the death of the central characters that these feuding families finally find peace. This is an intriguing idea, one antithetical. I have chosen to analyze both Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet and Laurent 's West Side Story. The purpose of this essay is showing how the spoken language is utilized in these different plays to meet differing objectives. The chosen scenes to further aid comparison and contrast are the balcony scenes.
Love, an intense, deep feeling of connection, romantic, or sexual attachment showing affection for someone or something. As for all pleasant emotions, the feeling that comes with love is exquisitely satisfying. It feels like a cool, , long drink of water when you are parched on a hot day, it it refreshing. Scientists have a pretty good idea of what love does to the brain. Being in love floods the brain with chemicals and hormones that produce feelings of pleasure, obsession and attachment. Neuroscientists divide love into three phases: lust, attraction and attachment. During the lust phase, hormones flood the body with feelings of intense desire. Adrenaline and norepinephrine make the heart race and the palms sweat, while the brain chemical
West Side Story: The musical West Side Story is based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This musical was possible due to the efforts of four people, Leonard Bernstein, the composer, Jerome Robbins, the director and choreographer, Arthur Laurents, the playwright, and Stephen Sondheim, the lyricist. After Rodgers and Hammerstein II’s Oklahoma! West Side Story is considered as the most significant musical. The theme of this musical was different than the contemporary comical musicals in the sense that the plot had a tragic ending.
West Side Story is the story of two lovers from rival gangs who cannot be together. This musical was heavily inspired by William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The music was a combination of jazz, pop, and classical which was influenced by Aaron Copland, which was Leonard Bernstein's friend. This
The language used in these two scenes is quite different. In Romeo and Juliet the majority of the scene is of the two lovers confessing their undying love for each other using beautiful language and many metaphors. They also discuss marriage and serious commitments to each other. In Westside Story, this scene is spent singing to each other, which I find, makes it more romantic but has less tension. They also don’t seem as serious about commitment towards each other.
Love is a beautiful thing, it always works out in the end. Everyone is always happy and no problems occur. West Side Story, a musical by Leonard Bornstein based on Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet parallels a love story of two star-crossed lovers. The play takes place in 1961 in New York City. This musical displays importance because it shows that nothing can overcome the power of love. This play is based on a love story between the main characters of Maria and Tony. Theses two are from different gangs that trouble to get along. They are from different gangs that do not get along at all. Roughly two hundred blocks make up Manhattan’s West Side, which stretches from Central Park West to the Hudson River. For the most part, the street youths
Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story share many similar themes. Romeo and Juliet both chronicle a story of overcoming prejudice and hatred, forbidden love, and defying stereotypes that nobody thought could be broken. The two stories are similar in a multitude of ways, even though their settings are centuries apart- Romeo and Juliet set in the 1500’s, and West Side Story set in the 1950’s. Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story both teach a lesson of how prejudice can teach you how to hate, and how one of your rivals may be the one who helps you remember how to love. In both Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story, prejudices are so strong between two distinct groups of people that the hatred is passed from generation to generation, always against the same rival group.
To say a couple is star-crossed means that their relationship will not last and is cursed to not work out. However, this couple may have intense feelings for each other, but not be destined to be together. It is called star cross because people who believe in astrology think the stars control human feelings. That is of course an opinion and why Shakespeare wrote that Romeo and Juliet were star-crossed lovers.
The general idea was to create a successful musical that tells a tragic story in a musical comedy. With the suggestion of Arthur Laurents writing the book by Robbins, the idea becomes more of a reality. The New York Times printed an article later that month with the headline of ‘Romeo to receive musical styling.’ An obstacle they faced was the family versus religion oriented story they were now creating – which would stray from the original Romeo and Juliet theme. The musical was put on the back burner of all but Robbins’ mind.