A new documentary is pulling back the velvet curtain on West Side Story, revealing the fabulous truth that’s been hiding in plain sight: the landmark musical was created by four queer men, and it’s been giving LGBTQ+ vibes from curtain up.
Titled West Side Story: The True Story of How Four Gay Men Created America’s Greatest Musical, the film is the brainchild of historian and college professor David LaFontaine. Equal parts scholar and activist, LaFontaine not only wrote and directed the documentary—he also narrated it, funded it, and turned it into the debut installment of the LGBTQ Literature Project, a bold series spotlighting how queer identity fuels artistic brilliance.
“This wasn’t just a fluke of talent,” says LaFontaine. “It was four gay men channeling their own longing, repression, and hope into one unforgettable piece of theater.” That fab four? Composer Leonard Bernstein, lyricist Stephen Sondheim, director-choreographer Jerome Robbins, and playwright Arthur Laurents—each of whom brought his own gay experience to the stage, whether closeted, bisexual, or defiantly out in private circles.
“Somewhere” Was Always for Us
The documentary doesn’t just retell the birth of West Side Story—from its Clift-inspired Romeo concept to the Jets and Sharks drama we know today—it reclaims it. LaFontaine argues that songs like “Somewhere” weren’t just about forbidden love in a general sense; they were coded cries for LGBTQ+ acceptance. Robbins’ choreography had homoerotic layers, Sondheim’s lyrics pulsed with anticipation and repression, and the dynamic between Riff and Tony practically screamed queer subtext.
“You’ll never hear these songs the same way again,” LaFontaine promises, pointing to how so many moments in the show echo the queer experience of hiding, yearning, and dreaming of a world that might actually let you live out loud.
Art Meets Activism
LaFontaine isn’t stopping at West Side Story. His LGBTQ Literature Project plans to spotlight more queer influence across generations, with the next film tracing LGBTQ+ literature from Virginia Woolf to Michael Cunningham. These aren’t side notes in history, he insists—they’re central themes. “Sexual or gender identity isn’t incidental,” he says. “It shapes how we see, feel, and create.”
He also sees this work as a form of resistance in an increasingly hostile political climate. “With the wave of anti-LGBTQ+ policies coming out of the White House, it’s more urgent than ever to tell our stories,” he says. Trans people are under attack, diversity is being shut down, and yet these films push back by amplifying queer legacy, not hiding it.
LaFontaine has taught West Side Story in his LGBTQ literature course for years, but turning it into a film was his passion project—one that cost him $18,000 of his own cash and a year and a half of his life. Still, he says it was a dream come true: “I fell in love with West Side Story at age 12. Now I get to show the world how queer that love really was.”
The film premieres online with a panel discussion this Thursday at 8:30 p.m. Eastern and will be available to colleges across the country for free. For LaFontaine, that’s the ultimate encore. Because if there really is “a place for us,” it’s built on stories like this—where queer voices take center stage and never apologize for the spotlight.