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The Cambridge Companion to West Side Story
  • Edited by Paul R. Laird, Elizabeth A. Wells
  • Published online:
    09 January 2025
    Print publication:
    09 January 2025
  • Over sixty years after its opening night, West Side Story is perhaps the most famous and beloved of twentieth-century musicals and stands as a colossus of musical and dramatic achievement. It not only helped define a generation of musical theatre lovers but is among the handful of shows that have contributed to our understanding of American musical identity at mid-century. Bringing together contemporary scholars in music, theatre, dance, literature, and performance, this Companion explores this explosive 1950s remake of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and its portrayal of the raw passion, rivalries, jealousy and rage that doom the young lovers to their tragic fate. Organised thematically, chapters range from Broadway's history and precursors to West Side Story; the early careers of its creators; the show's score with emphasis on writing, production, and orchestrations; issues of class, colourism, and racism; New York's gang culture, and how the show's legacy can be found in popular culture throughout the world.

  • 12 - The Real Gang History of New York

  • from Part II - The Work Itself and Its Context
  • Edited by Paul R. Laird, University of Kansas, Elizabeth A. Wells, Mount Allison University, Canada
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Companion to <i>West Side Story</i>
    Published online:
    09 January 2025
    Print publication:
    09 January 2025, pp 198-212

  • Summary

    From the 1940s into the late 1950s, juvenile delinquency was a real and potent threat to Americans. Gang violence, especially in large centres like New York, threatened the fabric of society and local communities. A series of artistic responses, from films to novels, attempted to address the problem and the reasons why teens became delinquent. Ultimately, West Side Story addressed the phenomenon for the first time in musical theatre terms, but it also galvanized original audiences with its gritty and realistic portrayal of crime in the streets. Although the musical has come to be seen as tame by today’s standards, it was cutting-edge entertainment in its time and fitted in with other contemporary portrayals of gang violence and its outcomes.

  • 16 - West Side Story Abroad as an American Icon

  • from Part III - The Legacy
  • Edited by Paul R. Laird, University of Kansas, Elizabeth A. Wells, Mount Allison University, Canada
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Companion to <i>West Side Story</i>
    Published online:
    09 January 2025
    Print publication:
    09 January 2025, pp 266-282

  • Summary

    West Side Story has long been important in the international market. This chapter provides four vignettes of its presence outside of the United States. Attempts to make the show one of the pieces of American culture that the US State Department allowed to tour in the USSR in the 1950s were unsuccessful, but the 1961 film helped make West Side Story known there and its sense of integration between various elements aligned closely with Soviet artistic conceptions. The film became very popular in Spain, where staged versions did not appear until tours in the 1980s. The first two professional Spanish productions premiered in Barcelona in 1996 and Madrid in 2018. Jerome Robbins took an American cast to England in 1958, creating a sensation first in Manchester and then in London. A Finnish production in Tampere Theater in 1963 proved popular and played briefly in Vienna in 1965.

  • “I’ve Got a Lot of Other Things I Do”: The Nuances of Digital Engagement among Older People

  • Tabytha Wells, Elizabeth Russell
  • Journal:
    Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement , First View
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    02 October 2024, pp. 1-11
    • Article
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  • As Western society becomes increasingly digitally dependent and many older adults actively engage in the online world, understanding the experiences of those who largely do not use digital technology in their daily lives is crucial. Individual interviews were conducted (pre-pandemic) with 23 older adults who, based on self-identification, did not regularly use digital technology, exploring how their experiences as limited digital technology users may have impacted their daily lives. An iterative collaborative qualitative analysis demonstrated three main themes: internet concerns, frustrations with digital technology, and conflicting motivators to use digital technology. Findings suggest that addressing digital concerns and providing effective digital skill learning opportunities may encourage some older adults to become more digitally engaged. However, as people, including older adults, can be uninterested in using these technologies, organizations and institutions should work to offer ways to support people of all ages who are not engaged online.

Leonard Bernstein in Context
  • Edited by Elizabeth A. Wells
  • Published online:
    06 April 2024
    Print publication:
    28 March 2024
  • Designed for students, aficionados of classical music, and historians, this volume offers a wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary and comprehensive view of one of the most important musicians of the twentieth century at his 100th anniversary. Scholars from diverse backgrounds and fields have contributed rich insights into Bernstein's life and work in an approachable style, shedding light on Bernstein's social, professional and ideological contexts including his contemporaries and rivals on Broadway, his artistic collaborations, his celebrity status as a conductor on the international concert circuit, and his involvement in music education via broadcasting. From his early education, through his conducting and composing careers, to his fame as musical and cultural ambassador to the world, this book views Bernstein the man and the artist and provides a fascinating overview of American classical music culture during Bernstein's long career in the public spotlight.

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