A West Side Story as well as each of the three versions of Romeo and Juliet had many similarities and differences. The similarities and differences varied through language dialects, clothing, weaponry, and the impressions different people had from different parts of Shakespeare's original. The Zeferelli version and the original play by William Shakespeare show some variations between storylines. There are also far smaller differences between extremely similar stories with the single huge difference of modernization, as seen between the Luhrman version of Romeo and Juliet, as well as the play.

The original Romeo and Juliet was set around the time when the play was written, and was not written to become one of the greatest plays of all time. Instead, the goal was more toward making a popular play that could make some money, be funny, and evoke a huge amount of feeling. This story focused around the...