Why is West Side Story so popular and relevant?

Question

I booked tickets to bring my girlfriend see West Side Story in London (she's crazy about the film/show and I don't understand why!). Why is this show so beloved? What does it mean to you?

Answer 1

Why is Romeo and Juliet so popular and relevant? This is just the same, but it's more modernized and relatable.

Answer 2

It is a timeless story of love and the folly of blind ethnic intolerance, adapted from Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet".

Answer 3

I've seen this for my 9th Grade English Class. I had to learn the multi-genre's of Romeo and Juliet, and apparently West Side Story turns out to be one of them. But the film I saw was set in the 1900's were their was the starting of gangs,prejudice,racism,violence,etc. Basically it almost has the same setting/plot as Romeo and Juliet. What we had to do was compare and see which character was who. If you see the film I think some characters are named Tony, Maria, and Bernardo,or something (and I hope this is the story your talking about if not sorry). Tony was compared to Romeo,as to Maria compared to has Juliet. Bernardo was like Tybalt, and so forth. So yah I hope this kind of helps.

Oh and what does this mean to me was just a story telling about racism,gangs,and romance the regular things we see today. It just seems common for being almost like Romeo and Juliet.But instead of being compared to "Romeo and Juliet" it was compared to "West Bank Story" which is practically similiar and more comedy.

Answer 4

One thing that it really stresses is gang violence, and the fact that the people involved in it are really just kids. When someone actually gets killed, they realize the scope of what happened, but they are unable to stop until Tony's killed and Maria tells them off and they see the sorrow that she feels - how she's ready to almost kill herself. It's a realization of how horrible violence is, and how people's lives end because of revenge.

And how terrible it is when these teenagers figure that out, after three people are dead.