and racism and people being displaced in 19505 new york. in what way do you think will tho5e themes re5onate with contemporary americans? the violence in new york in 1957 that the play reflect5 wa5 gang violence, in this case about third, fourth, generation white immigrants against the migrant population coming from puerto rico and actually chasing down the american dream and holding job5, whereas thejet5 didn't hold jobs, they were kind of homeless. they only had each other. but the sharks were on their way to real careers and real lives here and that was very obvious in the �*57 broadway show, but we have such bigger i55ues today. tony kushner wrote the screenplay, adapted the script from the play, tony and i both felt that this was the time to reintroduce it to an entirely new generation who perhaps had never heard of west side story. we thought the messages were so relevant to our time and to the generation that my kids