Abstract
Liturgy is one of the most obvious ways in which faith is enacted or produced. An analogy might be drawn between liturgical celebration and musical theatre: structurally similar, both performance media include dialogue and song and embrace movement or dance. While recent research on the musical has tended to focus on the musicological, the sociological and the historical, this study suggests that the evolving form of the twentieth-century musical reveals not only cultural influences, but many liturgical and theological references, both visual and auditory, intentional or not. With 732 performances to its credit, the original production of West Side Story was undoubtedly a highly regarded and popular hit on Broadway. The collaboration not only marks a creative high point in the history of the genre of the musical, at a time when that art form was enjoying its golden age, but the show is also reflective of the ongoing sacralisation of the Broadway musical, a phenomenon which reached a distinct climax in this particular production. By evaluating the content of this seminal musical, this study shows how the form of West Side Story exhibits liturgical traits, suggesting that such an interpretation might be applied to musical theatre in general.
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