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WEST SIDE STORY premieres in New York. Directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, adapted for the screen by Ernest Tidyman from Robbins hit Broadway musical. Like the play, the film transplants Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to the West Side of Manhattan where two waring street gangs – the American Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks – redefine the Montague and Capulet feud when the sister of the Shark’s gangleader falls in love with the Jets’ former co-founder. With music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Steven Sondheim, and a cast that includes Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno and Russ Tamblyn, the film is a box-office blockbuster, winning a record 10 Academy Awards.
