History Theatre / WestSideStory

Two gangs, one white native born American (Jets) and the other Puerto Rican immigrant (Sharks), are fighting over territory on Manhattan's West Side when Tony, former co-founder of the Jets, falls in love with Maria, the younger sister of the Sharks' leader Bernardo. Even worse, they fall in love on the very night the two gangs decide to end their feud in one final battle. Tony manages to persuade the two gangs to reduce it to a "fair fight" of one-on-one fisticuffs, but when Maria tells Tony to stop the fight altogether, his attempt to intervene results in the leader of the Jets, his best friend Riff, getting knifed to death by Bernardo. In a fit of rage, Tony then kills Bernardo in return.

* AngryMobSong: "Quintet" and the latter half of the "Jet Song".

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Riff and Bernardo could both be seen as this. So could Tony, who berates Anybodys for not acting their gender just a few minutes before Chino shoots him.]]

* ButchLesbian: Anybodys' masculine look can be read as this, though their orientation and gender can be ambiguous.

* DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster: The Jets' Song plays this trope straight; the rest of the musical deconstructs it.
* DanceOfRomance: Tony and Maria, though it is a cha-cha and not the more standard waltz.

* EnterStageWindow: Naturally, considering it's based on the UrExample.

* FinalLoveDuet: "Somewhere" reprise.
* FreudianCouch: During "Gee, Officer Krupke", this is how the head shrinker is portrayed by the Jets.

* GreaserDelinquents: Both the Jets and the Sharks are full of this.

* HerrDoktor: One of the Jets briefly pretends to be one in "Gee, Officer Krupke".

* IWantSong: "Something's Coming" and "Somewhere".

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:The deaths of Riff and Bernardo could be seen as this]].

* LipstickAndLoadMontage: In the reprise of "Tonight" in TheMovie, Anita has a L&LM song while the gangs prepare for the rumble.

* LoveAcrossBattlelines: Tony and Maria.

* MaltShop: Doc's Drugstore.
* MassiveMultiplayerEnsembleNumber: "Tonight".

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
** Tony, after killing Bernardo. Bernardo himself after killing Riff.
** ''Everyone'' after Tony dies and Maria chews them all out.

* NeverBringAKnifeToAFistFight: Averted. They do. And two main characters get killed off.

* OneOfTheBoys: Anybodys tries to be this, with limited success.

* OpeningBallet: Used to communicate the relationship between the Jets and the Sharks.
* ParentalAbandonment: Heavily implied with Riff.

* PoorCommunicationKills: Boy, did it ever here.
* ThePowerOfHate:
** Anita, after her near-gang rape.
--->"Bernardo was right. If one of you was lying in the street bleeding, [[KickTheSonOfABitch I'd walk by and spit on you]]."
** Maria reveals she finally understands this when she raises her gun.

* TheSongBeforeTheStorm: Again, "Tonight", which happens right before a MobWar.

** The exchange between Riff and Tony as "Womb to tomb, worm to sperm" is changed in the film to "Womb to tomb, birth to earth", but in the Quintet, for some reason, it's just "One two three, one two three!" which is a rather odd filler.

%%* {{Camp}}

* DrivenToSuicide: As should be expected from a ''{{Romeo and Juliet}}'' retelling, though the way both cases play out is {{Not His Sled}}:

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Riff and Bernardo could both be seen as this]].

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Riff and Bernardo could both be seen as this]].

In 2018, Creator/StevenSpielberg announced that he'd begun casting another film adaptation, a long-time passion project that he'd finally gotten the rights for. Creator/AnselElgort has been cast as Tony, while newcomer Rachel Zegler [[note]] who came to Spielberg’s attention after a video from her Website/YouTube channel of her singing “Shallow” from ''Film/AStarIsBorn2018'' went viral [[/note]] will portray Maria. This remake will reportedly be more mindful towards ethnic accuracy and representation than the original, with all of the Hispanic roles being filled by actors of Latino descent.

A 1957 Broadway [[TheMusical musical]] with music composed by Music/LeonardBernstein and lyrics written by Music/StephenSondheim, and its 1961 [[TheMovie film adaptation]]. A SettingUpdate adaptation of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet''.

In 2018, Creator/StevenSpielberg announced that he'd begun casting another film adaptation, a long-time passion project that he'd finally gotten the rights for. Creator/AnselElgort has been cast as Tony, while newcomer Rachel Zegler will portray Maria. This remake will reportedly be more mindful towards ethnic accuracy and representation than the original, with all of the Hispanic roles being filled by actors of Latino descent.

In 2018, Creator/StevenSpielberg announced that he'd begun casting another film adaptation, a long-time passion project that he'd finally gotten the rights for. Creator/AnselElgort has been cast as Tony, while newcomer Rachel Zegler will portray Maria. This remake will reportedly be more mindful towards ethnic accuracy and representation than the original, with all of the Hispanic roles being filled by actors of Latinx descent.

* BalonyWooingScene: Being an adaptation of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', of course there's a "Balcony Scene" for Tony and Maria. Due to the urban SettingUpdate, Maria's balcony is actually a window opening onto the fire escape. He climbs up, they begin a duet, and the world fades away.

In 2018 Creator/StevenSpielberg announced that he had begun casting for another film adaptation, a long-time passion project that he'd finally gotten the rights for. Creator/AnselElgort is cast as Tony.

*** Bernardo=Tybalt

* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler: Tony at the end is shot to death, and Maria laments how hatred killed him.]]

* DigitalDestruction: To put it bluntly, ''every'' DVD and Blu-Ray Disc has at least one flaw. Most infamously, the Special Edition DVD plays "Tonight" out of sync, and the 50th Anniversary Blu-Ray has the screen turn black during a few seconds of the overture.

* AccidentalMurder: In the fistfight-that-wasn't.

* AdultsAreUseless: It's {{lampshaded}} by the stage directions at the end:
--> ''The adults -- DOC, SCHRANK, KRUPKE, and GLAD HAND -- stand alone, useless.''
** This is pretty much the whole point of "Office Krupke"

* BreakTheCutie: Maria and Anita; both [[spoiler: lose their lovers, Maria also loses her brother, and Anita is also nearly raped]]. Tony arguably counts as well, since he [[spoiler: loses his best friend, has to face the guilt of killing Maria's brother, goes on the run from the police, and is tricked into thinking Maria is dead before being murdered himself]]; so does Chino, who [[spoiler: also loses his best friend, finds out that his (implied) fiancée is having an affair with said friend's killer, and in the end is arrested for having killed Tony.]] Did we mention that this all happens to them ''in just one night''?

* CombatByChampion: How the climactic rumble at the end of Act I was "supposed" to go.

%%* DistantDuet: "Tonight".
* DoubleEntendre: "Hey! I got a social disease!", referring of course, to juvenile delinquency, but the term Social Disease can also mean something very different...

* DramaticIrony: Maria persuades Tony to go to the rumble in order to stop the fist-fight. [[spoiler:He ends up killing her brother.]]
* DreamBallet: "Somewhere".

* ExtremelyShortTimespan: Starts on Friday afternoon and ends on either very late Saturday night or very early Sunday morning. Considering everything that happens, that is one ''hell'' of a weekend.

* FreudianCouch: During "Gee, Officer Krupke".

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: "Gee, Officer Krupke; ''Krup you!"'' [[note]]The main reason the lyric was changed from "Fuck You!" to "Krup You!" is that they wouldn't have been able to ship the music outside of New York State otherwise, Music/StephenSondheim [[WordOfGod said]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e7PJP0JtyI in this interview]].[[/note]]

* HaveAGayOldTime: "I feel pretty and witty and gay" - only in the movie. This was near the end of time when one could use "gay" in its original sense. There's also the line in 'Cool' about "if you've got a rocket in your pocket", which may have meant HotBlooded in the [=1960s=], but [[RagingStiffie not anymore]].
* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler: Tony at the end.]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: Schrank referring to the Jets as coming from "tin-horn immigrant scum" when he himself is almost definitely the descendant of immigrants.

* IAmSong: "Jet Song".

* {{Intermission}}: The play ends Act I after the rumble, while Act I of the movie ends after the war council. However, some prints of the movie (including all of the VHS tapes, laserdiscs, and pre-2003 [=DVDs=]) don't have an intermission at all, since director Robert Wise felt that it broke the tension.
* {{Irony}}: When told that Maria is dead, Tony becomes a DeathSeeker, and screams out for Chino to kill him too. He snaps out of it when he sees Maria alive, only for [[spoiler:Chino to oblige his death wish.]]

* MeddlesomePatrolman: Officer Krupke.
* MobWar

* SocietyIsToBlame: "Gee, Officer Krupke".
* TheSongBeforeTheStorm: Again, "Tonight".

* TheTeamWannabe: Anybodys.

* TruceZone: The school gym is neutral territory for both gangs.

In 2018 Creator/StevenSpielberg announced that he had begun casting for another film adaptation, a long-time passion project that he'd finally gotten the rights for. Creator/TaranEdgerton is cast as Tony.

In 2018 Creator/StevenSpielberg announced that he had begun casting for another film adaptation, a long-time passion project that he'd finally gotten the rights for.

*** Romeo & Juliet's elopement=Tony and Maria acting out a wedding

*** Friar Lawrence having to be quarantined, thus unable to tell Romeo that Juliet's death is faked, leading to Romeo's suicidal response=Doc not being present when Anita arrives at the store and unable to receive her message..