"West Side Story" is a timely re-telling of the Romeo and Juliet legend against the raw violence of youthful gang wars. It has earthy humor and simple beauty. And, best of all, it has tremendous drive. It moves with the speed of a switchblade knife thrust.

The Arthur Laurents book is lean and wiry. It never uses two words where one will do. It is an excellent framework for an extraordinary score by Leonard Bernstein, biting and tender lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and magnificent staging by Jerome Robbins. It is a felicitous blending of all facets of theatre….

Laurents, Bernstein and Sondheim made no compromises with popular taste. They have shunned the happy ending of the average Broadway song-and-dancer. Laurents, as a sort of off-stage Mercutio, says in effect, "A plague on both your houses." He has no sympathy for juvenile delinquents. He lashes out at their jungle...