A rugged steam locomotive roars out of a snow-covered tunnel, chugging past a frozen pond that serves as a rink for a handful of skaters. In the background, a waterfall that feeds the pond gently gurgles. Boy kills girl's brother in a gang fight.
Girl still loves boy.
Girl's fiance shoots boy in the back. As in Romeo and Juliet, there is no happy ending for the lovers in West Side Story, on stage Thursday at William B. Bell Auditorium. But there are a lot of happy tunes from Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein. From father to daughter, to daughter again. Of how Japanese soldiers plundered the Chinese city of Nanking in December 1937, killing and torturing more than 300,000 people in less than eight weeks.