West Side Story

Scene 1 begins with the Prologue, which is “half-danced, half-mimed with occasional phrases of dialogue” (1). The scene illustrates the tense rivalry between two gangs: the Sharks, who are Puerto Rican, and the Jets, who are US-born. The Jets, led by Riff, have claimed the territory onstage. The Sharks, led by Bernardo, enter and a scuffle breaks out. There is a police whistle, and the gangs stop fighting as Sergeant Krupke and Lieutenant Schrank enter. The cops immediately blame the Sharks, and Schrank comments, “Boy, what you Puerto Ricans have done to this neighborhood” (2). Schrank attempts to convince A-rab, one of the Jets, to identify the Shark who attacked him, but the Jets refuse. Angrily, Schrank responds, “I got a hot surprise for you: you hoodlums don’t own the street” (3). Then Schrank orders, “All right, Bernardo, get your trash out of here” (3) and Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks, exits with his gang. The officers demand peace from the gangs and leave.

The Jets mock the officers, insisting that they do in fact own the streets. Baby John, the youngest member of the Jets, notices that A-rab’s ear is bleeding, courtesy of Bernardo, as payback for stink-bombing Bernardo’s father’s store. Action, the most belligerent Jet, claims, “Them PRs’re the reason my old man’s gone bust!” (5) Baby John adds, “My old man says them Puerto Ricans is ruinin’ free ennaprise” (5). Anybodys, a “scrawny teenage girl, dressed in an outfit that is a pathetic attempt to imitate that of the Jets” (5), accuses the gang of being all talk. She claims that she “was a smash in that fight” (6), begging Riff to let her in the gang. Riff sends her on her way, then gathers the gang around him. Riff declares, “We fought hard for this territory and it’s ours. But with those cops servin’ as cover, the PRs can move right un under our noses and take it away” (6). Riff suggests a “rumble” (6): one big fight to suppress the Sharks once and for all.

The Jets discuss the terms for the rumble that they will bring to the Sharks, determining that a weapon-free fight would be best, but that if the Sharks want switchblades, they’ll agree. Riff plans to challenge Bernardo, but Big Deal, “a bespectacled, self-styled expert” (1), reminds him that he needs to bring a lieutenant. Riff’s lieutenant is Tony, but Action argues that Tony is never around, and no longer belongs with the Jets. Riff begins to sing “When You’re a Jet” (9), which asserts that a Jet is a Jet for life. Riff insists that Tony will come through, planning to challenge Bernardo at the dance that is taking place that night at the gym. The gang continues the song, finishing with a promise to “beat every last buggin’ gang on the whole buggin’ street!” (12). 

At the start of Scene 2, Riff is trying to convince Tony to go to the dance with him and challenge Bernardo. Tony is painting a store sign as a surprise for his boss, Doc, at the drugstore where he works. Tony isn’t interested in taking part in gang activities, admitting to Riff, “Every single damn night for the last month, I wake up and I’m reaching out” (14). Tony doesn’t know what he’s reaching for, but that “it’s right outside the door, around the corner” (14). Tony adds, “It’s like the kick I used to get from being a Jet” (14). Disappointed, Riff tells Tony, “Without a gang you’re an orphan” (14). Tony insists that he’s out, but Riff tells him that he already promised the gang that Tony would be at the dance, and Tony finally agrees to go. Riff leaves, and Tony sings “Something’s Coming,” a wistful, fast-paced song capturing the tension Tony expresses about the “something great” (16) that he can feel approaching. Tony claims, “There’s something due any day, I will know right away, soon as it shows” (16). He finishes the song, quietly adding, “maybe tonight…” (17)

Scene 3 opens in a bridal shop, and Anita, “a Puerto Rican girl with loose hair and a slightly flashy ‘American’ dress” (17) is altering a white communion gown into a party dress for Maria, “an excited, enthusiastic, obedient child mixed with the temper, stubborn strength and awareness of a woman” (17). Maria begs Anita to make the neckline lower, and Anita refuses, having made a promise to Maria’s brother, Bernardo. Anita insists that Bernardo brought Maria to the United States so she can marry Chino, another Shark. Maria complains, “When I look at Chino, nothing happens” (18). Unhappy that Anita won’t lower the neckline or dye the dress red, Maria finally tries it on and thanks Anita enthusiastically, amazed at how beautiful she looks. Bernado enters with Chino, “a shy, gentle, sweet-faced boy” (20). As the foursome leaves, Maria tells Bernardo, “It is most important that I have a wonderful time at the dancing tonight. […] Because tonight is the real beginning of my life as a young lady of America!” (20-21)

Streamers rain down as Maria twirls, and the shop shifts into Scene 4, the dance at the gym. Girls and boys from both gangs dance on, “jitterbugging wildly with their bodies but their faces, although they are enjoying themselves, remain cool, almost detached” (21). Each gang wears their own colors, demarcating clearly who is a Shark and who is a Jet. Maria enters with Chino, Bernardo, and Anita, excited to take part in her first dance. Pepe, Bernardo’s lieutenant, greets Bernardo and the Jets retreat to one side of the dance hall, surrounding Riff. Similarly, the Sharks gather around Bernardo. The two gang leaders and their lieutenants approach the center of the dance floor, but Glad Hand, “a smiling, overly cheerful young man of about thirty” (21) intervenes. Sergeant Krupke joins Glad Hand, who announces, “We want you to make friends here, so we’re going to have a few get-together dances” (22). Glad Hand instructs the attendees that they will “form two circles: boys on the outside, girls on the inside. [...] [W]hen the music stops, each boy dances with whichever girl is opposite” (22). The kids resist until Krupke steps forward. 

Beginning with Riff and his girl, Velma, who is “terribly young, sexy, lost in a world of jive” (22) and followed by Bernardo and Anita, the dancers form two circles as music begins. When Krupke blows his whistle, the boys are all stopped facing girls of the opposite gang. After a tense moment, Bernardo reaches for Anita instead of the girl he has landed on, Riff takes Velma’s hand, and the rest of the kids do the same. Mambo music begins, cueing a dance-off as Bernardo and Anita challenge Riff and Velma. Tony appears, and Riff hugs him briefly. As the Sharks and the Jets continue the dance-off, cheering on their own gang members, Tony and Maria spot each other from opposite sides of the room. The rest of the attendees “disappear into a haze of the background as a delicate cha cha begins” (24). Tony and Maria approach each other then, “slowly as if in a dream” (24), they begin to dance. Tony asks her, “You’re not thinking I’m someone else” (24), to which Maria replies, “I know you are not” (24). Tony tells her, “I felt, I knew something-never-before was going to happen, had to happen” (24). He kisses her, and “the music bursts out, the lights flare up and Bernardo is upon them in an icy rage” (25).

Bernardo hauls Maria away, demanding, “Couldn’t you see he’s one of them?” (26). Maria answers, “No; I saw only him” (26). Bernardo orders Chino to take a disappointed Maria home. Riff and Bernardo decide to meet at Doc’s drugstore for a “War Council” (28). Riff warns Bernardo that there is to be no violence before then, and Bernardo spits back, “I understand the rules–Native Boy” (28). Riff tries to catch Tony’s attention, as a dazed Tony wanders away, repeating Maria’s name and then singing, “The most beautiful sound I ever heard. […] Maria! I’ve just met a girl named Maria, and suddenly that name will never be the same to me” (29). Tony finds Maria’s house, waiting until she appears at the window behind the fire escape. Tony whispers to Maria, and she emerges. They talk quietly as Maria’s parents call for her to come back in. They profess their love for each other in the song “Tonight” (34), about how the world has changed now that they’ve met. Before they part, Maria tells Tony to come to the bridal shop where she works at sundown the next day.

Bernardo and Anita enter with two Sharks, Indio and Pepe, and their girlfriends, Consuela and Rosalia. Anita urges Bernardo to let Maria have fun, reminding him, “She-is-in-America-now” (38). Bernardo points out that “Puerto-Rico-is-in-America-now!” (38). Chino arrives, and they discuss Tony, who is considered American even though he is the child of immigrants, unlike the Puerto Ricans who are considered foreigners. The group talks about their first experiences of America. Bernardo tries to leave for the War Council, but Anita won’t go yet, asking him to choose between the council and her. Bernardo answers, “First one, then the other” (41) and Anita replies, “I am an American girl now. I don’t wait” (41). Bernardo grumbles to Chino that “Back home, women knew their place” (41) and Anita shoots back, “Back home, little boys don’t have war councils” (41). Anita leads the women in the song “America,” expressing their sardonic preference for life in the United States over Puerto Rico. The couples dance and whistle.

Scene 6 opens at Doc’s drugstore. The Jets wait impatiently for the Sharks to arrive, horsing around. Doc enters, pointing out that it is past curfew. Baby John informs Doc that the gang is there for a War Council with the Sharks. Doc encourages them to find other ways to challenge each other without violence, beginning, “Why, when I was your age” (48). Action interrupts, “When you was my age; when my old man was my age; when my brother was my age! You was never my age, none a you! The sooner you creeps get hip to that, the sooner you’ll dig us!” (48). Doc responds, “I’ll dig your early graves, that’s what I’ll dig” (48). They banter, and Action gets angry when Doc refers to the gang as “hoodlums” (50). A-rab retorts, “He don’t want what we want, so we’re hoodlums!” (51). As the gang gets angry, Riff insists that they “play it cool” (51) if they want to survive. Riff sings the song “Cool” and urges Action and the others to “take it slow and daddy-o, you can live it up and die in bed” (52). The song “leads into a frenetic dance in which the boy and girls release their emotions and get ‘cool’” (52).

As the song ends, the Sharks enter. Bernardo suggests, “Let’s get down to business” (53) and Riff tells Doc to leave. Riff challenges Bernardo to a rumble, and the gang members begin to argue about who started the feud. This devolves into racial slurs, and Bernardo accepts the challenge. They set the time for the next night under the highway after sunset. Riff asks about weapons, and Tony enters, interrupting. Riff and Bernardo go back and forth, listing weapons until Tony calls them all chickens for needing weapons to fight. Riff and Bernardo agree to a “fair fight” (57) with no weapons. Suddenly a Jet on lookout whistles, and the gang members switch positions, desegregating themselves. Lieutenant Schrank enters, and Doc appears. Schrank takes a pack of cigarettes, claiming, “I always make it a rule to smoke in the can. And what else is a room with half-breeds in it, eh, Riff?” (58). Schrank orders, “Clear out, Spics. Sure; it’s a free country and I ain’t got the right. But it’s a country with laws: and I can find the right. I got the badge, you got the skin. It’s tough all over. Beat it!” (58).

As the Sharks leave, Bernardo starts to whistle “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and the rest of the gang joins in. Schrank asks the Jets where the rumble will take place. He claims that if they tell him where it is, he’s on their side. Schrank wheedles, “I want this beat cleaned up and you can do it for me. I’ll even lend a hand if it gets rough” (58). The Jets stay silent, angering Schrank, who threatens and insults them. Riff holds Action back as Action tries to attack Schrank. Riff and the others leave, and Schrank follows, commenting, “I’ll find out where ya gonna rumble. But be sure to finish each other off. Because if you don’t I will!” (59). Alone with Doc, Tony confesses that he met a girl, and that’s why he made it a fair fight with no weapons. Doc asks if he’s afraid, asserting, “I’m frightened enough for both of you” (60).

Scene 7 takes place in the bridal shop, where Maria and Anita are working. Maria tells Anita to go home and she’ll lock up. They discuss the rumble, and Anita says that the boys have to fight to burn off their feelings. When Tony enters, Anita understands why Maria wanted her to leave. Maria attempts to cover, but Anita tells Tony and Maria, “You’re out of your heads” (62). Anita leaves, pretending that she doesn’t know that they’re meeting but ordering Maria to “be home in fifteen minutes” (63). Maria tells Tony that he has to go and stop the rumble. Tony agrees, telling her that he will come for her afterwards and bring her to his house, where his parents will greet her happily. Using a dress dummy, Tony kneels, pretending it’s Maria’s father and asking for her hand in marriage. They arrange the dummies to perform a mock wedding, then sing “One Hand, One Heart,” their wedding vows. Realizing that the game feels real, they put the dummies back, then sing their vows again: “Make our lives one life, day after day, one life. Now it begins, now we start, one hand, one heart, even death won’t part us now” (68).

Back in the neighborhood, Scene 8 begins as the Jets and the Sharks sing “Tonight” tensely about the upcoming rumble. Tony interjects, singing his version of “Tonight” about seeing Maria later. The song evolves into four countermelodies as Tony and Maria, the Jets, the Sharks, and Anita sing against each other. This melts into Scene Nine, which takes place under the highway, where the rumble will occur. Riff tells Bernardo to shake hands, and Bernardo retorts, “Look: I don’t go for that pretend crap you all go for in this country. Every one of you hates every one of us and we hate you right back. I don’t drink with nobody I hate, I don’t shake hands with nobody I hate. Let’s get at it” (73). Before they begin to fight, Tony intervenes, offering Bernardo a hand to shake. Bernardo shoves Tony, attacking him in various ways as Tony refuses to fight back. Bernardo taunts Tony, until Tony shouts at him. Riff punches Bernardo, and the fight turns into choreography. Riff and Bernardo each draw knives from their pockets. Tony tries to step between them. In the scuffle, Riff corners Bernardo, and Tony yells, “Riff, don’t!” (77) When Riff pauses, Bernardo stabs him. Tony reacts, taking Riff’s knife and stabbing Bernardo. With the sound of a siren, the gangs disperse. Tony lingers, staring at Riff and Bernardo’s bodies. He screams, “Maria!” (77). Anybodys pulls Tony, convincing him to run away. They escape as “a distant clock begins to boom” (77).