Shakespear's West Side?

It’s clear that most people see and believe these two pieces of art to be separate entities, which I fully agree, however it seems almost inhuman to not compare them. Without comparisons, we wouldn’t have the ability to decide the things we like.

Personally speaking, I would choose WWS over R+J. Why? Because it has singing and dancing, big surprise, though this is not to discredit R+J. In fact, I believe that WWS gives new life to R+J, for those (like me) who find Shakespeare’s work a bit daunting. After knowing a version of the R+J story, I think many people would want to research the root of WWS and discover the play which the musical was based off of. Not only does this enhance your knowledge of the musical, but it also can make it more enjoyable by find the similarities, and how they have been modernized.

Some of the comparisons (which have been mentioned) are…

·         The Montagues and The Capulets – The Jets and The Sharkes

·         Romeo falls in love and gets killed – Tony falls in love and gets killed

·         Juliet has a relative killed by her lover – Maria has a relative killed by her lover

·         The Prince tells the families that if there was another riot that the heads of each family would be killed – The Lieutenant tells the Puerto Ricans and the Americans that if they get into another fight, they’ll be taken to jail.

·         Both stories have an accidental death, which causes the hero to kill their lover’s relative.\

·         Both a meeting moment at the dance

·         Both have a romantic moment on an outside structure

·         And both have a fight near the end, which leads to death.

Of course we could do this whole comparison thing with Romeo and Juliet and the animated film Gnomeo and Juliet. But I’ll leave that for another day.