West Side Story

Starred review from August 1, 2020
It was going to be a modern version of Romeo and Juliet, set against the backdrop of the troubled relationship between the Jews and Catholics of Manhattan, to be called East Side Story. Years later, in 1957, after undergoing substantial changes, including a shift in compass-heading in the title, it became a successful Broadway musical. Its dark subject matter made it an unattractive film property, and it fell to an independent production company, the Mirisch Brothers, to turn West Side Story into a movie in 1961. This well-researched book offers a guided tour through an important piece of film history. Barrios shows us the actors being cast; the sets being designed; the elaborate musical numbers being rehearsed and filmed; the delicate relationship between codirectors Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise (Robbins was an acclaimed expert in musical theater; Wise had the film experience); the efforts of the producers to tame an out-of-control budget. There are problems on every movie set, and this movie had some big ones. Star Natalie Wood was inadequate as a singer; Robbins marginalized Wise and ignored his producers. (Wood was dubbed, and Robbins was fired, though he later was given a credit as codirector.) While remaining always respectful to the movie and the people who made it, the author lays bare the behind-the-scenes tumult, elevating the book from a typical making-of story to something really special: a no-holds-barred chronicle of what it really takes to get a great movie made.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)