West Side Story (1961), poster, Japanese

Unframed: 58 x 20 in. (147 x 51 cm)

Japanese posters were printed in a few different sizes. This is the larger format, which was printed in two sheets, and featured different artwork.

This Japanese poster does not surface very often.

This American musical was directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, and is an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name, which was inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The cast includes Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno and George Chakiris. The music was composed by Leonard Bernstein, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Instead of the two star-crossed lovers from the two feuding families The Montagues and The Capulets, in this adaptation you have The Jets and The Sharks, two feuding teenage gangs from different ethnic backgrounds, one white and one Puerto Rican. As with Romeo and Juliet, two young people from each group fall in love, resulting in agitation from the rival gangs and culminating in a tragic ending.