Watch West Side Story for only $5 this Friday, July 17, 8pm at the Paramount Theatre (2025 Broadway, Oakland). Movie classics feature 35mm film prints, a newsreel, cartoon, previews, Dec-O-Win raffle, and a live Wurlitzer organ serenade. Purchase advance tickets here and enter to win a pair of tickets here. Tickets available at the Paramount Box Office on movie night. Writer Arthur Laurents, choreographer Jerome Robbins, librettist Stephen Sondheim, and composer Leonard Bernstein took Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet into a New York City street gang setting and created a legend that remains one of the most exhilarating, passionate musicals you may ever see on screen. Shakespeare’s Montagues and Capulets become two rival teen-age gangs: the “American” Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks. Tony (Richard Beymer) from the Jets falls in love with Maria (Natalie Wood) whose brother Bernardo (George Chakiris) belongs to the Sharks. Can these two star-crossed lovers surmount the racial and ethnic barriers in their way, or will they be just two more victims of intolerance, misunderstanding, and mistrust? With a truly amazing Bernstein score, the incredible Robbins choreography, heartbreaking songs by Sondheim, innovative camera work by director Robert Wise, and unforgettable performances by a luminous Natalie Wood and a smoldering Rita Moreno (in her Oscar-winning role as Anita), it’s no wonder this classic garnered ten Academy Awards.
