Contrast of Romeo and Juliet an West Side Story

Essay submitted by Bob Garrard

Three Hundred Fifty Years of Blind Love: A Contraposition of Shakespeare and

Robbins' Romeo and Juliet

Andy Warhol once said, "They say that time changes things, but actually you have to change them

yourself." Two hundred fifty years passed between the original Romeo and Juliet and the premiere

of West Side Story on Broadway in 1957. However, time did not change the message of the

story, simply the creators' unique visions evolved. Shakespeare's delivery of the timeless tale of

desperate love in his classic Romeo and Juliet proves to only intensify through retelling and

modern interpretation. Audiences cherish Romeo and Juliet as one of the most beloved plays of

all time from the Elizabethan Age to the present. Romeo and Juliet have attained the role as the

quintessential lovers, and the noun, "a Romeo," is synonymous with " lover." Shakespeare's

Romeo and Juliet is closely based on Arthur Brooke's tale, The Tragicall History of Romeus and

Juliet. The language, attitudes, and customs detailed in the play are generally English, in spite of

proved to have universal appeal throughout all artistic forms, as it had already been adjusted for

dance at the gym in West Side Story, both of the gangs' members dance a mambo, but Tony and

and Romeo and Juliet intertwine resulting in two parallel yet slightly differing representations of the

The world is wild and bright,