West Side Story (1961)
The feud as two gangs on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, set to Bernstein and Sondheim.
Move the families to the Upper West Side, make the feud about who belongs there, and the story still ends the same way.
You want the musical, in the film that made it famous on screen.
What it keeps and what it changes
Keeps: the shape of the story: two sides, two lovers from opposite ones, and a fight that cannot be undone.
Changes: the setting, to rival gangs in 1950s Manhattan, and the words, to Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics and Leonard Bernstein’s music.
Rival gangs on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the Jets and the Sharks. Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris. Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins.
Whose story is it?
Tony’s and Maria’s, and the gangs’. Rita Moreno plays Anita.
How much time does it ask?
A feature, 2 hours 33 minutes. Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins.
Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris.
Where to find it
Other ways to get it: Find where it’s streaming — JustWatch
More ways into Verona: Romeo and Juliet (George Cukor, 1936) · Romeo and Juliet (Franco Zeffirelli, 1968) · William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996)