ABSTRACT
There is a sense in which a modem adaptation can be regarded as a form of critical interpretation of original, its emphases and omissions, successes and failures serving to sharpen our awareness of original and its modem appeal. For a student of Shakespeare, that is the primary interest of West Side Story today. Over the years West Side Story has taken on a nostalgic appeal, comparable to that of an earlier 1944 Robbins-Bemstein musical about New York, On the Town, revived this season on Broadway. As late as 1964 a revival of West Side Story in New York was still being received with enthusiasm. By its 1968 revival, however, work was beginning to seem dated. Clive Barnes was remarking that he had never much cared for it and judging its jazz-dance old-fashioned and a dead end. Although West Side Story has in some respects lost its timeliness, it still can throw light on the contemporary appeal of Romeo and Juliet.
