What inspired Jacko's Beat It
The movie version of Broadway musical West Side Story opened at New York's Rivoli Theater on October 18, 1961. It went on to win an astounding 10 Academy Awards (out of 11 nominations), including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor and Actress!
Based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story was a musical written by Arthur Laurents and set to music by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. It was set in Manhattan's West Side in the mid-1950s, and explored the rivalry between two teenage gangs of different ethnic backgrounds.
And here's a bit of interesting trivia -- it inspired the video for Michael Jackson's 1983 hit Beat It.
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