A Real Life West Side Story

Radio Diaries

Radio Diaries & Radiotopia

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2021

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A new movie version of West Side Story is hitting theaters this week. The musical, which tells a story of romance and rivalry between white and Puerto Rican gangs in New York City, first opened on Broadway in 1957.

The story of warring youth gangs turned out to be prophetic. Just a month before the musical opened, the city was stunned by the brutal murder of a teenager from Washington Heights named Michael Farmer.

Today on the podcast, a real life West Side Story.

This story originally aired on NPR in 2007.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I want to tell you about another podcast we love.
0:02.7	The folks at Brooklyn Public Library just launched a new podcast series called Barrowed
0:06.9	and Band.
0:08.5	Over seven episodes, the hosts tell the story of America's ideological war with its bookshelves.
0:14.0	The series explores how and why books are being removed from library shelves across the
0:18.0	country today, and what people are doing about it.
0:21.0	We hear from students, teachers, and librarians, and the writers whose books have become a political
0:26.2	battleground.
0:27.7	You can subscribe to Barrowed and Band wherever you get your podcasts.
0:31.7	Radio Tapio from PRX.
0:37.0	From PRX's Radio Tapio, this is Radio Diaries.
0:39.8	I'm Joe Richmond.
0:42.0	A new movie version of West Side Story is hitting theaters this week.
0:53.9	The musical, which tells a story of romance and rivalry between white and Puerto Rican
0:57.8	gangs, first opened on Broadway in 1957.
1:01.2	It was adapted for the screen in 1961.
1:07.5	Leonard Bernstein composed the music and Stephen Sondheim, who died last month, wrote the lyrics.
1:20.5	It was a huge hit.
1:22.3	So over the years, some people have criticized West Side Story's depiction of Puerto Rican
1:26.2	life in New York City.
1:33.0	The musical originally was going to be called East Side Story, and the conflict was going
1:36.9	to be between Catholics and Jews.
	...

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