The clothing was very light and not quite decorative. Men"s hair kept flat and very short. In contrast, the women in West Side Story wore cropped pants and V-necked shirts. At dances the women wore mid length skirts and panty hose. Women"s hair kept shoulder length and also in a simple braid. Men dressed modern, similar to today. The Jets and Sharks dressed with slacks or jeans along with long sleeve collar shirts or tight t-shirts. At the ball the men wore vivid suites and ties, well dressed for the occasion. Men"s hair was also kept short but was full at the top.

             The setting and staging of the two plays represent opposite periods of time. Romeo and Juliet for example, the work of Shakespeare, written over 400 years ago and West Side Story filmed in the middle of the twentieth century. Zeferelli"s Romeo and Juliet, a classical interpretation of Shakespeare"s original version took place in Verona, Italy whereas West Side Story took place in the streets of Manhattan, New York. The famed balcony scene was shot at the palace built by Cardinal Bourges in the sixteenth century. Pope Pius II built the Capulet"s home in the 1460"s. Friar Lawrence"s church in fact the church of San Pietro, a nationwide memorial. Altogether the scenes were shot in Italy, including the cities of Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio. The garden and balcony scene at Juliet"s home filmed in Pienza, Tuscany became prominent. The scenes of riots and duels settled in Gubbio, the fairest medieval city of Italy. The fight sequences kept to sword fights and the scene depicted to the left the fighters, Romeo and Tibalt. This may be the intention of the director that it becomes difficult to tell who to cheer for, the Montague or the Capulet. In West Side Story the balcony scene took place on a fire escape ladder where Maria is waiting on a platform between two flights of stairs. All of the fighting sequences were series of dance steps.