Wild Side Story is a parody musical that originated in 1973 as a drag show on the gay scene of Miami Beach, soon developed there into an underground happening for mixed audiences, and up until 2004 was performed hundreds of times in Florida, Sweden, California and Spain.

Wild Side Story first opened officially at the Ambassador III on August 8, 1973,[12] and by 1974 moved down 22nd Street to Larry Boxx's new Stonewall of Miami Beach; the Florida performances starred Rena Del Rio (Rene Zequeira).

The actors were usually young amateurs from the respective local scenes, who made their stage debuts,[5][13] such as designer Christer Lindarw, model Jimmie Kersmo, drama college graduates Helena Mattsson, Mohombi Moupondo and Patrik Hont, as well as percussionist Alfredo Chacón and eventual Counter Strike champion Miguel Bonett.

A few more effects, such as loud foot drumming in America, strobe lighting to slow motion movement and live screams in the catastrophic street Rumble – and intermittent projection of slide photos (some taken in ballet tutus in the gymnasium of Miami Beach High School) and Super 8 film, have completed the multimedia experience.

Other songs are included with Bette Midler, La Lupe, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Lou Reed, Alma Cogan (material provided by Adam Faith), Patti Page and Peggy Lee,[18][27] as well as spicy comments from old Mae West movie scenes,[17][21] all creating vital parts of the lampoon.

[26] The central character José Maria González dresses up so cleverly as a woman, to try to get a job in a drag show, that Tony falls indiscriminately in love, which leads to the main comedy confusion in the plot,[27] and an opening for the cast to parody Romeo and Juliet.

A reinterpretation of the Tonight song has Tony torn between self-destructive love pangs and ensuing anatomical suspicion, while Maria to the audience begins to regret causing so much trouble, just to find employment, and finally removes his girl clothes and make-up.

Eventually, Maria's brother Bernardo and Tony himself and his dumped girlfriend Betty-Sue, created especially for Wild Side Story, all get killed, but they arise from the dead when a fabulously attired soul goddess invokes the spirit of Dr. King (see above) to bring everyone back to life for a happy-go-lucky ending.

[13] In Stockholm in the autumn of 1975 Lars Jacob, with Anders Eljas as his debuting band leader and Graham Tainton as his choreographer, had already succeeded well with his first cabaret AlexCab,[31][32] where drag numbers of an American type were performed for the first time in Sweden.

[33] Writers in major newspapers like Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet noticeably had a hard time knowing whether to praise or bash such a totally new phenomenon as Wild Side Story, and their reviews came out somewhat perplexed.

)[17] A few years later in Los Angeles, journalist Michael Kearns headlined his review with Wild Side Story as "the talk of the town", mentioned celebrities in the audience (such as Lehman Engel and Boz Scaggs) and added "the most unusual thing you've ever seen",[18] while a local gay magazine called it a "fun, campy evening's entertainment" and "the cast is lively and Jacob's direction is fast paced … a dashing Tony … beautiful, touching, tender Maria …" and the two drag queens "the riotous part of the show".