The cast of talented young comedians and musicians seduced the Monegasque public with their enthusiastic performance of the American musical West Side Story which original debut in Broadway was back in 1957. This all time hit was Inspired by Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet published in 1597 and adapted by playwright Arthur Laurent, composer Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, with no other than Jerome Robbins responsible for the entire production and choreography. The story is set in the East 40s and West 50s of the Upper West Side in New York City in the mid 1950s, a blue-collar neighbourhood. It evolves around the confrontation of two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds, the Sharks from Puerto Rico) and the Jets a Polish-American working class.  In the Shakespearean play they are described as “two households, both alike in dignity…” The musical emulates the tragic relationship between the powerful families of the Montague’s and Capulet’s in Verona around the romance of two young lovers Romeo Montague represented by Tony, one of the Jets in the show, and Juliet Capulet who in the musical becomes Maria the sister of the leader of the Sharks, whose deaths paradoxically restores family harmony. A well known drama that has not lost its character, with memorable songs like Tonight, Maria or Somewhere written by Berstein that make it transcend time. 

Photo by Celina Lafuente de Lavotha: The cast of West Side Story with the conductor in a suit, to the left of Tony, Maria and her brother in the middle.