Welcome

Welcome to the official West Side Story website! This is the place for you if you've ever been involved in, or infatuated with, West Side Story  – as an actor, singer, dancer, musician, producer, director, designer, crew or – just as important – as a fan.

My brother, sister, and I have always had West Side Story in our lives; we refer to the work as our "fourth sibling." I myself have been a fan of the show ever since my dad composed the score back in the 1950's, when I was a very little girl. I was too young to understand a lot of the story, but I loved it anyway. Who could resist that music?!

It can happen with a classic work that it will grow and unfold along with you over the course of your life. And so it was with me and West Side Story. At the age of ten, upon first seeing the film adaptation, I was so smitten that I vowed I would see it ten times! That was a very conservative vow, as it turned out. By now, I've seen and heard West Side Story more times and more ways than I can count: on three different Broadway stages, and at regional theaters all over the world; in movie houses, concert halls, and on video; in high schools and colleges; in a punk rock version, and a one-woman version by Cher(!); and even at the illustrious La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy, where the blue jeans and fire escapes onstage made a fine contrast with the elegantly dressed audience in the gilded balconies. 

And that's not all! Fasten your seat belts for the upcoming film remake of West Side Story -- with a script by Tony Kushner, and directed by no less than Steven Spielberg. The film is scheduled to open in December of 2021. 

Here on this site, you can indulge your fascination with this groundbreaking musical in any number of ways. You can read about how the authors developed the show's concept and structure. (Did you know the original idea was for warring street gangs of Catholics and Jews?) You can "go backstage" at the original Broadway production in 1957. And you can search through a calendar of West Side Story performances worldwide -- among which is another  Broadway revival, directed by the cutting-edge director, Ivo van Hove, which opened February of 2020. West Side Story is truly everywhere -- and with its themes of love striving to rise above hatred; the fear of immigrants; and the toxicity of racism, West Side Story speaks to us today as urgently as ever.

I wish you happy browsing as you explore the world of West Side Story. It's a world my brother, sister and I have lived in all our lives -- and we're still enthralled by our fourth sibling.  

-Jamie Bernstein