WEST SIDE STORY Performance Rights Withdrawn From North Carolina, Mississippi

In a move than can be interpreted as a reaction to recent legislation that allows for discrimination against LGBT individuals, Music Theatre International (MTI), the company that administers licensing rights for stock and amateur productions for hundreds of musicals, has placed this notice on their website page for licensing requests for WEST SIDE STORY:

MTI serves as an agent for the rightsholders whose shows we represent. The rightsholders of this show have made their intentions clear and MTI will not issue new licenses for this show within North Carolina or Mississippi until we receive new instructions.

In March of this year North Carolina passed its Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, which requires transgender individuals to use public restrooms that correspond to the biological sex stated on their birth certificates. More recently, Mississippi's new law allows persons and institutions with religious objections to deny services to LGBT individuals.

WEST SIDE STORY has a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. It is the only musical by any of these three authors represented by MTI that carries this restriction.

On March 31st, composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz released an open letter stating he would no longer permit productions of his musicals to be performed in North Carolina. All of his musicals licensed by MTI, including PIPPIN, GODSPELL and DISNEY'S MULAN, JR., now carry the above notice on their MTI webpages.

As previously announced, Cirque du Soleil has cancelled upcoming engagements in the North Carolina cities of Greensboro, Charlotte and Raleigh, releasing a statement that reads, "Cirque du Soleil believes in equality for all. It is a principle that guides us with both our employees and our customers. We behave as change agents to reach our ultimate goal of making a better world with our actions and our productions."