West Side Story Announces Dates For Broadway Engagement

It was announced today that the upcoming previously announced revival of West Side Story will begin previews on February 23, 2009 with an official opening slated for March 19, 2009.

WEST SIDE STORY, the landmark American musical, will return to Broadway in a new production directed by two-time Tony Award winning librettist Arthur Laurents.  Produced by Kevin McCollum, James L. Nederlander and Jeffrey Seller, WEST SIDE STORY will open on a date to be announced in March 2009 with preview performances beginning on Monday, February 23, 2009 at a Nederlander Theatre to be announced.  WEST SIDE STORY will play an out of town engagement December 16, 2008 through January 17, 2009 at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C., where the musical made its world premiere in 1957.  The original Jerome Robbins choreography will be restaged by Tony Award nominee Joey McKneely (The Boy from Oz, The Life).

"This show will be radically different from any other production of WEST SIDE STORY ever done.  The musical theatre and cultural conventions of 1957 made it next to impossible for the characters to have authenticity.  Every member of both gangs was always a potential killer even then.  Now they actually will be.  Only Tony and Maria try to live in a different world" said Arthur Laurents, who was recently nominated for a 2008 Tony Award for his direction of GYPSY, also one of his librettos.

This production, with an onstage cast of 37 and 30 musicians in the orchestra pit, will introduce the unprecedented element of selectively weaving Spanish throughout both the book and songs.   

Broadway history was made when WEST SIDE STORY premiered at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 26, 1957.  One of theatre's finest accomplishments, WEST SIDE STORY is written by three theatrical luminaries: two-time Tony Award winner Arthur Laurents (book) and multiple Tony and Grammy Award winners Leonard Bernstein (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics) in his Broadway debut.

WEST SIDE STORY transports the achingly beautiful tale of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to the turbulent streets of the Upper West Side in 1950's New York City.  Two star-crossed lovers, Tony and Maria, find themselves caught between the rival street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds, the "Jets" and the "Sharks."  Their struggle to exist together in a world of violence, hate and prejudice is one of the most heart-breaking, relevant and innovative musical masterpieces of our time.

The Bernstein and Sondheim score is considered to be one of Broadway's finest and features such classics of the American musical theatre as "Something's Coming," "Tonight," "America," "I Feel Pretty" and "Somewhere."

Casting information and onsale date for tickets will be announced at a later date.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

WEST SIDE STORY had a long journey to Broadway.  Six years elapsed between Jerome Robbins's first idea of a modern musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet and its actual Broadway debut in 1957.  Originally, the action of the musical was to take place on New York's Lower East Side with tensions flaring between Jews and Catholics during the Passover and Easter holidays.  The original setting left the authors uninspired and the project was put on hold.  Years later, when Arthur Laurents proposed changing the basis of conflict from religion to race, the show gained creative momentum and WEST SIDE STORY was born.

Originally directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, WEST SIDE STORY opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 26, 1957 and garnered passionate reactions from critics and audiences alike.  The piece has often been credited with changing the entire course of the American musical theatre.  Applauding the creators' innovation in dance and musical style, TIME Magazine exclaimed "Robbins' energetic choreography and Bernstein's grand score accentuate the satiric, hard-edged lyrics of Sondheim and Laurents' capture of the angry voice of urban youth."  New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson described the show as "profoundly moving; an incandescent piece of work where theatre people, engrossed in an original project, are all in top form."

The original production starred Larry Kert as "Tony," Carol Lawrence as "Maria," Chita Rivera as "Anita," and won six Tony Award nominations including Best Musical of 1957.  Jerome Robbins won the Award for his groundbreaking choreography and Oliver Smith took home the prize for Best Scenic Design.  Also nominated were Carol Lawrence for Best Supporting Actress, Max Goberman for Best Musical Director and Irene Sharaff for Best Costume Design.  WEST SIDE STORY ran for 732 performances before launching national and international tours and a successful mounting at London's Majesty Theatre in 1958.  The first revival of the musical opened on April 8, 1964 at New York City Center by the New York City Center Light Opera Company.  The production closed on May 3, 1964 after a limited engagement of 31 performances.  The City Center production was staged by Gerald Freedman based on Robbins' original concept. A Broadway revival opened at the Minskoff Theatre on February 14, 1980 directed and choreographed by Robbins with the assistance of Tom Abbott and Lee Becker Theodore.   The revival was nominated for a 1980 Tony Award for Best Revival as well as nods for Debbie Allen as "Anita" and Josie de Guzman as "Maria."

An exciting and innovative motion picture version, directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, was released in 1961 and starred Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer as the star-crossed lovers "Maria and Tony" and Rita Moreno as "Anita."  The film also received wide praise from critics, winning ten Academy Awards out of its eleven nominated categories (including Best Picture) as well as a special award for Robbins.  The film's soundtrack grossed more than any other album before it.

BIOGRAPHIES

Arthur Laurents' (Book, Director) first play, Home of the Brave, opened on Broadway in 1945 followed by The Time of the Cuckoo and A Clearing in the Woods. He also has written the books for several musicals, including West Side Story, Gypsy, Anyone Can Whistle and Do I Hear a Waltz?, which was based on his play The Time of the Cuckoo. Laurents has directed several Broadway productions as well, including the musicals I Can Get It for You Wholesale La Cage Aux Folles, for which he won a Tony Award, and three productions of Gypsy in 1974, 1989 and the current production starring Patti LuPone which received seven 2008 Tony Award nominations.  Laurents has also written two novels, "The Way We Were," and "The Turning Point," both of which became successful films for which Laurents wrote the screenplays. He also wrote the screenplays for The Snake Pit, Anastasia and the Alfred Hitchcock film Rope.

Leonard Bernstein (Music) was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts.  Before graduating Harvard University in 1939, he made his unofficial conducting debut with his own incidental music to "The Birds," and directed and performed in Marc Blitzstein's "The Cradle Will Rock."  In 1940, he studied at the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Tanglewood, with the orchestra's conductor, Serge Koussevitzky. Bernstein later became Koussevitzky's conducting assistant.  Bernstein was appointed to his first permanent conducting post in 1943, as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic.  In 1945 he was appointed Music Director of the New York City Symphony Orchestra, a post he held until 1947. Bernstein became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in 1958.  More than half of Bernstein's 400-plus recordings were made with the New York Philharmonic. Bernstein wrote a one-act opera, "Trouble in Tahiti," in 1952, and its sequel, the three-act opera, "A Quiet Place" in 1983. He collaborated with choreographer Jerome Robbins on three major ballets: "Fancy Free" (1944) and "Facsimile" (1946) for the American Ballet theater; and "Dybbuk" (1975) for the New York City Ballet. He composed the score for the award-winning movie "On the Waterfront" (1954) and incidental music for two Broadway plays: "Peter Pan" (1950) and "The Lark" (1955).  Bernstein contributed substantially to the Broadway musical stage.  He collaborated with Betty Comden and Adolph Green on On the Town (1944) and Wonderful Town (1953).  In collaboration with Richard Wilbur and Lillian Hellman and others he wrote Candide (1956).  In 1957 he again collaborated with Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents, on the landmark musical West Side Story, also made into the Academy Award-winning film. Festivals of Bernstein's music have been produced throughout the world.  In 1985 the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences honored Mr. Bernstein with the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award. He won eleven Emmy Awards in his career.  He received the Handel Medallion, New York City's highest honor for the arts; a Tony award (1969) for Distinguished Achievement in the Theater; and dozens of honorary degrees and awards from colleges and universities.  He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1980.  In 1990, Bernstein received the Praemium Imperiale, an international prize created in 1988 by the Japan Arts Association and awarded for lifetime achievement in the arts. Bernstein used the $100,000 prize to establish The Bernstein Education Through the Arts (BETA) Fund, Inc. before his death on October 14, 1990.  Bernstein was the father of three children -- Jamie, Alexander, and Nina -- and the grandfather of four: Francisca, Evan, Anya and Anna.

Stephen Sondheim (Lyrics) wrote the music and lyrics for Saturday Night, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anyone Can Whistle, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, The Frogs, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park With George, Into the Woods, Assassins, Passion and Bounce as well as lyrics for West Side Story, Do I Hear a Waltz? and additional lyrics for Candide. Side by Side by Sondheim, Marry Me a Little, You're Gonna Love Tomorrow, Putting It Together and Moving On are anthologies of his work as composer and lyricist. For films, he composed the score of Stavisky, background music for Reds and songs for Dick Tracy and the television production "Evening Primrose." He co-authored the film The Last of Sheila and the play Getting Away With Murder. Mr. Sondheim is on the council of the Dramatists Guild, having served as its president from 1973 to 1981.

JEROME ROBBINS (Choreography) is world renowned for his work as a choreographer of ballets as well as his work as a director and choreographer in theater, movies and television.  His Broadway shows include On the Town, Billion Dollar Baby, High Button Shoes, West Side Story, The King and I, Gypsy, Peter Pan, Miss Liberty, Call Me Madam, and Fiddler on the Roof.  His last Broadway production in 1989, Jerome Robbins= Broadway, won six Tony Awards including best musical and best director.  Among the more than 60 ballets he created are Fancy Free, Afternoon of a Faun, The Concert, Dances At a Gathering, In the Night, In G Major, Other Dances, Glass Pieces and Ives, Songs, which are in the repertories of New York City Ballet and other major dance companies throughout the world.  His last ballets include A Suite of Dances created for Mikhail Baryshnikov (1994), 2 & 3 Part Inventions (1994), West Side Story Suite (1995) and Brandenburg (1996).  In addition to two Academy Awards for the film West Side Story, Mr. Robbins has received four Tony Awards, five Donaldson Awards, two Emmy Awards, the Screen Directors' Guild Award, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award.  Mr. Robbins was a 1981 Kennedy Center Honors Recipient and was awarded the French Chevalier dans l'Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur.  Mr. Robbins died in 1998.

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.