Breaking News: Broadway Revival of WEST SIDE STORY Pushes Back Opening Night

BroadwayWorld has learned that the highly anticipated Broadway revival of West Side Story will be pushing back its opening night by two weeks, following a knee injury that left the show's star Isaac Powell unable to perform.

Though details of the nature of the injury are not available, it has been confirmed that the injury took place at the December 20 performance of the show and left the actor limping through curtain call.

Producer Scott Rudin tells Deadline, "We're postponing two weeks - from February 6 to February 20 - to give Isaac the chance to recover from an injury to his knee, so that he can have the same duration of preview playing period we've always had scheduled. Luckily he is much braver than me and will be back and playing his full, remarkable show very shortly."

The musical's new opening will happen on Thursday, February 20, 2020. The show has been in previews at the Broadway Theatre since December 10 and had previously planned to open on Feb. 6.

Directed by Tony-winner Ivo van Hove, the show stars Isaac Powell, who played Daniel in the recent Tony-winning revival of ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, as Tony, and Juilliard student Shereen Pimentel as the show's other star-crossed lover, Maria. Pimentel was last seen on Broadway as Young Nala in THE LION KING.

Also in the company are Yesenia Ayala as Anita, Amar Ramasar as Bernardo, Ben Cook as Riff, Zuri Noelle Ford as Anybodys, Jacob Guzman as Chino, and more. The show will feature 32 Broadway debuts, and will mark the first Broadway production for choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker.

Along with de Keersmaeker and his frequent design collaborator Jan Versweyveld, van Hove promises a radical, thrilling new interpretation of the iconic show, which features a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

This is not the first bit of unexpected news to come from the musical as it was reported last month that in van Hove's revival, the show would not include Maria singing the iconic song "I Feel Pretty," and the ballet portion to the song "Somewhere" would be removed as well. The news of the cuts drew strong reactions from BroadwayWorld readers.

Despite the concern over cut songs, WEST SIDE STORY has had a strong start at the box office grossing $2,751,759 in just 13 performances.

Watch Powell sing "Something's Coming" on a recent episode of "Live from Here with Chris Thile":