Can you imagine Romeo and Juliet in West Side Story and Tony and Maria in Romeo and Juliet? Of course not. West Side Story is the modern rendition of Romeo and Juliet. It was adjusted and modified to better suit the audiences of today. Characters and setting were made to resemble those of an American society rather than an ancient one. In modernizing the production, roles some characters play in plot development vary from the original. The best way to recognize that West Side Story is based on Romeo and Juliet is through plot. The almost parallel structure of Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story brings all of the differences in setting, characters, and the roles of the characters together to show the overall similarity.

Romeo and Juliet is set in Verona, Italy in the 1400s. The rivalry that causes the complications for the lovers is based...