It was originally going to be called ‘East Side Story’
The show’s ‘Romeo & Juliet’-inspired concept, which came from choreographer-director Jerome Robbins, was going to be about rival Irish-American and Jewish gangs on New York’s Lower East Side. But following real-life turf wars involving Mexican gangs in LA, Robbins and his collaborators (playwright Arthur Laurents and composer Leonard Bernstein) switched it to the other side of town and the Polish-American Jets versus the Puerto Rican Sharks. In between it was called ‘Gangway’ – definitely not as catchy.