I think especially in terms of your class, while some of it can be dedicated to correlations among the story, I think the bigger, more important correlations can be drawn from outside the story. The style of singing/the score, the new audience both have drawn and trends they have started, etc.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli