West Side Story - Characters

Characters

Male Jets

  • Riff, quick-tempered but zany leader of the Jets
  • Tony, former joint-leader of the Jets, gone straight. Riff's best friend.
  • Ice/ Diesel, second-in-command of the Jets. Ice was a character created for the movie, but has been adopted in later stage productions.
  • Action, the most quick-tempered member of the Jets, always ready for a fight. Takes over as leader after Riff's death.
  • A-Rab, a happy-go-lucky Jet who is beaten up by the Sharks in the opening sequence
  • Baby John, the youngest Jet, A-Rab's best friend
  • Snowboy
  • Joyboy
  • Big Deal
  • Tiger
  • Mouthpiece
  • Gee-Tar

Male Sharks

  • Bernardo, Maria's brother, leader of the Sharks
  • Chino, Maria's hot-tempered suitor, Bernardo's best friend
  • Pepe, second-in-command of the Sharks
  • Indio
  • Loco
  • Jauno
  • Luiz
  • Rocco/Anxious
  • Toro
  • Nibbles/Del Campo
  • Chile

Female Jets

  • Graziella, Riff's girlfriend (Ice / Diesel's girlfriend in some productions)
  • Velma, Ice's girlfriend (Riff's girlfriend in some productions)
  • Minnie, Baby John's girlfriend
  • Clarice, Action's girlfriend
  • Pauline, A-Rab's girlfriend
  • Anybodys, a tagalong tomboy, eventually accepted into the gang and falls in love with Action

Female Sharks

  • Maria, Puerto Rican ingenue; Bernardo's sister
  • Anita, saucy friend of Maria and girlfriend of Bernardo, though they seem poorly matched
  • Rosalia, argues with Anita in "America"; Indio's girlfriend
  • Consuela, Pepe's girlfriend
  • Teresita, Loco's girlfriend
  • Francisca, Jauno's girlfriend
  • Estella, Luiz's girlfriend
  • Margarita, Toro's girlfriend

Adults

  • Officer Krupke, an agressive but inept cop
  • Doc, a weary old candy store owner
  • Glad Hand, the inept chaperone at the dance
  • Detective Schrank, a racist police lieutenant

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Famous quotes containing the word characters:

    “For the most part, only the light characters travel. Who are you that have no task to keep you at home?”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “His leanings were strictly lyrical, descriptions of nature and emotions came to him with surprising facility, but on the other hand he had a lot of trouble with routine items, such as, for instance, the opening and closing of doors, or shaking hands when there were numerous characters in a room, and one person or two persons saluted many people.”
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    “White Pond and Walden are great crystals on the surface of the earth, Lakes of Light.... They are too pure to have a market value; they contain no muck. How much more beautiful than our lives, how much more transparent than our characters are they! We never learned meanness of them.”
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