1. Operetta

2. West Side Story (1957)
(after Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, 1597)
Book and script by Arthur Laurents (1917-2011)
Choreography by Jerome Robbins (1918-98)
Music by Leonard Bernstein (1918-90)
Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim (b. 1930)
Left to right: Stephen
Sondheim, Arthur
Laurents, producers Harold
Prince and Robert Griffiths
(seated), Leonard
Bernstein, Jerome Robbins.

3. ACT I
West Side Story (1957) Scene 1. The Neighborhood
1) Prologue (instrumental)
Musical in 2 Acts 2a) Jet Song (Riff and Jets)
Setting: New York, 1950s 2b) Jet Song Chase (instrumental)
Scene 2. A back yard
Characters
Jets Scene 3. The bridal shop
Sharks Scene 4. The gym
Riff (leader, Jets)
Bernardo (leader, Sharks) 4. Blues (instrumental)
Maria (sister of Bernardo, Puerto Rican) 4a. Promenade (instrumental)
Tony (co-founder, Jets, in love with Maria, Polish-American)
Anita (brother of Bernardo) 4b. Mambo (instrumental)
Chino (a Shark, in love with Maria) 4c. Cha-Cha (instrumental)
Instrumentation 4d. Meeting scene (underscore)
Reed I: piccolo, flute, alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet 4e. Jump (underscore)
Reed II: eb clarinet, clarinet, bass clarinet
Reed III: piccolo, flute, oboe, english horn, tenor sax, 5. Maria (Tony)
baritone sax, clarinet, bass clarinet Scene 5. A back alley
Reed IV: piccolo, flute, soprano sax, bass sax, clarinet,
bass clarinet 6. Balcony scene (Maria and Tony)
Reed V: bassoon 7. America (Anita, Rosalia and Girls)
2 Horns in F
3 Trumpets in Bb (2nd doubling Trumpet in D)
7a. America to Drugstore (instrumental)
Trombones Scene 6. The drugstore
Timpani
8) Cool (Riff and Jets)
Percussion (4 players): traps, vibraphone, 4 pitched
drums, guiro, xylophone, 3 bongos, 3 cowbells, conga, timbales, snare 8a) Cool Chase (instrumental)
drum, police whistle, gourd, 2 suspended
cymbals, castanets, maracas, finger cymbals, tambourines, small 8b) Under Dialogue and Change of Scene (underscore and instrumental)
maracas, glockenspiel, woodblock, claves, triangle, temple
blocks, chimes, tam-tam, ratchet, slide whistle) Scene 7. The bridal shop
Piano/Celesta Scene 8. The neighborhood
Electric guitar/Spanish guitar/Mandolin
Violin I-VII Scene 9. Und the highway
Cello I-IV ACT II
Contrabass
Scene 1. Maria’s bedroom
Scene 2. Another alley
Scene 3. Maria’s bedroom
Scene 4. The drugstore
Scene 5. The cellar
Scene 6. The neighborhood

4. “America”
ROSALIA ANITA ROSALIA
Puerto Rico, Hundreds of people in each room! I'll give them new washing machine.
You lovely island . . .
Island of tropical breezes. ALL ANITA
Always the pineapples growing, Automobile in America, What have they got there to keep clean?
Always the coffee blossoms blowing . . . Chromium steel in America,
Wire-spoke wheel in America, ALL
ANITA Very big deal in America! I like the shores of America!
Puerto Rico . . . Comfort is yours in America!
You ugly island . . . ROSALIA Knobs on the doors in America,
Island of tropic diseases. I'll drive a Buick through San Juan. Wall-to-wall floors in America!
Always the hurricanes blowing,
Always the population growing . . . ANITA ROSALIA
And the money owing, If there's a road you can drive on. When I will go back to San Juan.
And the babies crying,
And the bullets flying. ROSALIA ANITA
I like the island Manhattan. I'll give my cousins a free ride. When you will shut up and get gone?
Smoke on your pipe and put that in!
ANITA ROSALIA
OTHERS How you get all of them inside? Everyone there will give big cheer!
I like to be in America!
O.K. by me in America! ALL ANITA
Ev'rything free in America Immigrant goes to America, Everyone there will have moved here!
For a small fee in America! Many hellos in America;
Nobody knows in America
ROSALIA Puerto Rico's in America!
I like the city of San Juan.
ROSALIA
ANITA I'll bring a T.V. to San Juan.
I know a boat you can get on.
ANITA
ROSALIA If there a current to turn on!
Hundreds of flowers in full bloom.

5. “Cool”
RIFF
Boy, boy, crazy boy, mm. 1-6 OSTINATO
Get cool, boy! mm. 7-42 REFRAIN (ABAB, Riff, each phrase 8 bars, cut time)
mm. 43-144 FUGUE, development
Got a rocket in your pocket,
Keep coolly cool, boy!
Don't get hot,
'Cause man, you got
Some high times ahead.
Take it slow and Daddy-O,
You can live it up and die in bed!
Boy, boy, crazy boy!
mm. 145-160 REFRAIN (AB, Jets)
Stay loose, boy! mm. 160-73 Coda
Breeze it, buzz it, easy does it.
Turn off the juice, boy!
Go man, go,
But not like a yo-yo schoolboy.
Just play it cool, boy,
Real cool!

6. Natalie Wood (1938-81) as Maria Marni Nixon (b. 1930) (below right) was the
voice of Natalie Wood in 1961 film version of
West Side Story. Nixon picture below with
Deborah Kerr in 1956 (Nixon was the voice of
Kerr in The King and I).