On Feb. 14 through the 26, the Fox Theatre hosted 16 performances of Jerome Robbins’s “West Side Story.”

The story is a 1950s version of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” complete with the balcony scene. Instead of the Capulets and Montagues, though, it centers around the Jets, a working-class white gang, and the Sharks, a Puerto Rican gang.

Riff (Drew Foster), the leader of the Jets, and Bernardo (German Santiago), the leader of the Sharks, pick petty fights with each other that shadow the darker racism of the age. While their gangs are engaged in battle of words and fists, the Jet Tony (Ross Lekites) falls in love with the Shark Maria (Evy Ortiz).

Michelle Aravena brilliantly portrayed Anita, Bernardo’s lover. In her rendition of “America,” she brought to life the yearning for adventure and freedom.

“West Side Story” is a play that appeals to an emotional side that is in all of us. You find yourself rooting for the two “star-crossed lovers” while at the same time empathizing with the Jets or the Sharks.

As in the Fox’s version of “Phantom of the Opera,” the play ended fairly ambiguously, leaving those who have not read “Romeo and Juliet” or previously seen “West Side Story” wondering just what happened to the girl named Maria.