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Movie musicals aren’t a good bet to win best picture Oscars these days, but that wasn’t the case Apr. 9, 1962 when WEST SIDE STORY took home 10 Oscars, including best picture & directing.

Sixty-four years ago, Academy members didn’t frown on honoring musicals, but today musicals, sci-fi, comedies & superheroes are all genres Academy voters are said to consider less worthy than dramas for best picture applause.

In 1962, however, when United Artists & The Mirisch Corp.’s WEST SIDE STORY hit the Oscar jackpot, Academy voters liked musicals. In fact, they’d been celebrating them almost since the Oscars began. At the second annual Academy Awards in 1930, MGM’s musical THE BROADWAY MELODY won best picture. Since then, best picture Oscars also went to such musicals as THE GREAT ZIEGFELD in 1937, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS in 1952, GIGI in 1959, MY FAIR LADY in 1965, THE SOUND OF MUSIC in 1966, AMADEUS in 1985 & CHICAGO in 2003.

The 1957 Broadway musical WEST SIDE STORY was conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Arthur Laurents. Directed & choreographed by Robbins, it played 732 performances and was nominated for six Tony Awards — winning for choreography & scenic design, but losing Best Musical to THE MUSIC MAN.

The play started out as “East Side Story,” a romance between a Catholic boy and a Jewish girl. Because that plot recalled the legendary 1922 hit “Abie’s Irish Rose,” it was changed to reflect NY’s Puerto Rican immigration boom in the late ’40s and ’50s. By the time it opened Sept. 26, 1957 at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre, it had been retitled WEST SIDE STORY.

When The Mirisch Corp. set out to turn it into a film starring Natalie Wood as Maria, Robbins insisted on directing. Mirisch was concerned because Robbins hadn’t done a movie before, so they signed Robert Wise to direct the story while Robbins directed the musical numbers.

Wise, who edited Orson Welles’ 1941 classic CITIZEN KANE, had directed such films as  THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951) and I WANT TO LIVE (1958). After production began in August 1960, Robbins shot so many musical takes that WEST SIDE STORY was soon over budget and behind schedule.

Robbins was dropped quickly and Wise completed the film as its solo director. Fortunately, all the dance numbers that still needed to be shot had already been rehearsed and choreographed by Robbins. Wise brought WEST SIDE STORY in on schedule for $6M. It wound up grossing $44.1M, which was a great succe$$ story then.

20th Century Studios/Amblin Entertainment’s 2021 remake of WEST SIDE STORY, directed by Steven Spielberg with Rachel Zegler starring as Maria, didn’t do nearly as well at the Oscars. Although it received seven nominations, including picture & directing, it won only for supporting actress (Ariana DeBose).