Doc doesn't understand why the boys are making trouble for the Puerto Ricans, and the boys respond that the Sharks make trouble for them. Anybodys, a tomboy who is trying to join the Jets, asks Riff if she can participate in the rumble, but he says no. Doc is upset that the boys are planning to fight at all. discussing what weapons they might have to use.
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While Rosalia expounds on the beauties of the country, Anita responds with why she prefers her new home ("America").Īt the drugstore, the Jets wait for the Sharks. As the boys leave for the council, one of Anita's friends, Rosalia, claims to be homesick for Puerto Rico. Anita tries to lure Bernardo inside and away from the war council, but he refuses. Bernardo, Anita, Chino and their friends discuss the unfairness of America – they are treated like foreigners, while "Polacks" like Tony are treated like real Americans, paid twice as much for their jobs. Bernardo insists that they, like Maria, don't understand this country. Anita admonishes him, saying that Maria already has a mother and father to take care of her. He agrees to meet her at the bridal shop the next day. She and Tony profess their love to each other ("Tonight"). Her parents call her inside, but she stays. She appears in the window, but is nervous that they will get caught. Later, Tony finds the fire escape outside of Maria's apartment and calls up to her. As everyone else disappears, Tony is overcome with the feeling of having met the most beautiful girl ever ("Maria"). Riff and Bernardo agree to meet at Doc's in half an hour for the war council. Bernardo interrupts them, telling Tony to stay away from his sister and asking Chino to take her home.
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During the dance, Maria and Tony spot each other. Everyone dances with their own group as Tony enters ("Mambo"). Bernardo reaches across the Jet girl in front of him to take Anita's hand, and Riff does the same with his girlfriend, Velma. In the promenade leading up to the dance, though, the girls and boys end up facing each other at random, Jet girls across from Shark boys and vice versa. The two initiate some dances to get the kids to dance together, across the gang lines. Riff and his lieutenants move to challenge Bernardo and his lieutenants, but they are interrupted by Glad Hand, the chaperone who is overseeing the dance, and Officer Krupke. It turns out that the dress is for the dance, which Maria is attending with Chino, whom she is expected to marry, despite the fact that she does not have any feelings for him.Īt the dance in the local gym, the group is divided: Jets and their girls on one side and Sharks and their girls on the othe. Maria complains that the dress is too young-looking, but Anita explains that Bernardo, her boyfriend and Maria's brother, made her promise not to make the dress too short. Maria is excited, enthusiastic and childlike, but also growing into an adult. In a bridal shop, Anita remakes Maria's communion dress into a party dress. Riff leaves Tony to wonder about this strange feeling that he's been having ("Something's Coming"). Nevertheless, Riff convinces Tony to come to the dance. He explains that, every night for a month, he's had a strange feeling that something important is just around the corner. Riff presses him to come to the school dance for the war council, but Tony resists he's lost the thrill of being a Jet. Riff goes to see Tony, who is now working at Doc's drugstore. The other boys complain that Tony hasn't been around for a month, but Riff doesn't care once you're a Jet, you're a Jet for life ("Jet Song").
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Action wants to be his second, but Riff says that Tony is always his second. Riff plans to have a war council with Bernardo to decide on weapons. They decide that they need to have one big rumble to settle the matter once and for all – even if winning requires fighting with knives and guns. When the police leave, the Jets bemoan the Sharks coming onto their turf. Frustrated, Schrank threatens to beat the crap out of the Jets unless they make nice. The Jets, however, are not stool pigeons and won't tell him anything. ACT ONEĭetective Schrank, the senior cop on the beat, tries to get the Jets to tell him which Puerto Ricans are starting trouble in the neighborhood, as he claims he is on their side. Officers Schrank and Krupke arrive to break up the fight. An incident between the Jets and Shark leader, Bernardo, escalates into an all out fight between the two gangs. It shows the growing tensions between the Sharks, a Puerto Rican gang, and the Jets, a gang made up of "American" boys. The opening is a carefully choreographed, half-danced/half-mimed ballet of sorts.