BOSTON - "West Side Story," one of the best-known musicals of the '50s, gets a spirited revival in a brief return at the Wang Center.

Few American musicals are as thoroughly familiar as this collaboration of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim who did the music and lyrics to Arthur Laurents' book, thanks to both its Broadway and Hollywood versions, yet this production is fresh and vibrant.

Setting the story of ill-fated love between the children of warring clans - the tale of Romeo and Juliet - in contemporary New York with street gangs in place of the Montagues and Capulets gave a modern gloss to an ancient story, with a little social comment on the side.

If there was one criticism then, it was that Jerome Robbins' balletic choreography romanticized the confrontation between the Jets and the Sharks, a Puerto Rican gang. Today, when the streets of New York and other cities are sprayed with automatic gunfire, the gangs which the story reflects seem as quaint as the vendettas of medieval Italy in Shakespeare's tale.

What remains is the universal tragedy of a love doomed by the lovers' circumstances, and death by misunderstanding. Betsy True as Maria and Peter Gantenbein as Tony are charming as the lovers. Despite some uncertain moments last night, they have glorious voices, as one might expect from veterans of "Les Miserables." It is not easy to make fresh such familiar love songs as "One Hand, One Heart," "Tonight," "I Feel Pretty," and "Maria," but they do it winningly.

Alan Johnson deserves special praise for effectively reproducing Robbins' choreography with spirited, at times acrobatic, dancers.

Supporting the two central characters are solid performances by Michael Gruber as Riff, leader of the Jets, and Robert Montano as Bernardo, Maria's brother and leader of the Sharks, as well as Jackie Lowe as Anita, who leads the chorus of Puerto Rican girls in the lively cultural conflict number "America."

Later, she is poignant in the heartbreaking duet with Maria after the gang rumble has left Bernardo dead at Tony's hand.