West Side Story – SOUNDTRACK*****

Prologue/Jet Song/Something’s Coming/Dance At The Gym/Maria/America/Tonight/Gee Officer Krupke/I Feel Pretty/One Hand One Heart/Quintet/The Rumble/Cool/A Boy Like That-I Have A Love/Somewhere

The Academy award winning musical West Side Story starred Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer and was based on the highly successful Broadway stage show about a romance that crossed the New York gangland divide. The soundtrack LP was massively popular, topping both the US and UK album charts for months on end. Without question, it is one of the finest musicals of all time. Music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. (US:1 UK:1)

“I just love the West Side Story soundtrack. It sounds fresh and clear as if you were there. The wonderful songs stay with you all day. There's a perfect combination of romantic songs, emotional songs and humorous songs. This is truly a classic.”

“It certainly captures the genius that was Leonard Bernstein. This unmatched score remains one of the greatest to ever reach Hollywood or Broadway. Superb recording of a musical masterpiece, and I don't foresee any cast outdoing it in the near future.”

“West Side Story has so many great numbers in one show. It has two of the most beautiful ballad love songs, Maria and Tonight. The Officer Krupke number has humour. The whole score is rhythmically strong. The music is as exciting and beautiful today as it was when it first appeared many years ago.”

“Excellence from start to finish, perhaps the greatest soundtrack recording ever. The music unfolds as if it were a greatest hits of Broadway collection. From the excitably jarring musical stabs of the Overture to the soft, silky and saddened strings of the end credits, there doesn't appear to be a false note, song or performance.”

“This soundtrack is just ever so gorgeous, lively and different. The songs are breathtaking and the singers sing 'em as if their lives depended on it. There's not a bad song in sight and all you have to is lean back and take it all in.”

“The music switches between manic, energetic pieces written for dance, which explode at you in a feast of rhythm and melody, soaring ballads, and the heartbreaking, pulsing, life-giving thematic rivers flowing behind the whole show from beginning to end. This show lifts you high up, and it breaks your heart at the top, and it leaves you there crying with Maria as this wise, gorgeous music tries to heal you.”