The Story Behind West Side Story

Happy new year my friends. Hope your Christmas was wondrous. Two shows ago Madame Aries asked me if I had heard anything about a revival of West Side Story possibly coming to Broadway. I mentioned that I had but didn't know too many details. She said that third season "The X Factor" winner, Leona Lewis, had been approached by David Winters* to play the part of Maria. This prompted me to do some research and I found out some very interesting facts about the history of the show. First of all, yes, there is a revival in the works. 90 year old Arthur Laurents who wrote the book of West Side Story will purportedly be directing a revival. He said the 1970 revival was too white-bread and that he has come up with a way of doing it that will make it contemporary without changing a word or a note. Laurent, for your information, also wrote the "book" or libretto (the text of a dramatic musical work) for Gypsy** and Do I Hear A Waltz, among others, and won the Tony Award in 1983 for Best Direction of a Musical for La Cage aux Folles.

* David Winters, a Brit by the way, played Baby John in the original Broadway and A-Rab in the movie of West Side Story.
**A revival of Gypsy will open in March 2008 starring Broadway legend Patti Lupone as Mama Rose.

Besides the book being written by Arthur Laurents, listen to this list of greats who were connected with the original show. The score was composed by Leonard Bernstein who wrote the music with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim in his debut. Does it get any better than that? Well, listen to this. It was conceived, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins with the original cast including Larry Kert as Tony, Carol Lawrence as Maria and the one and only Chita Rivera as Anita. And it was produced by Harold Prince. With all this genius behind it, it couldn't miss, right? Well it debuted on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre in September 1957 and only played 732 performances before closing June 27, 1959. It had been nominated for Best Musical in 1957 but lost to Music Man. Jerome Robbins did, however, win the Tony for Best Director of a Musical. It was the 1961 blockbuster movie that put it on the map winning 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture. The classic Bernstein-Sondheim score boasts such tunes as "Tonight", "America", "Maria", "I Feel Pretty" and "Somewhere".

West Side Story premiered in Europe in 1958 at the Manchester Opera House, later that year transferring to Her Majesty's Theatre in London's West End. It was more successful in the West End than Broadway, running from December 1958 until 1961 with a total of 1,039 performances. Jerome Robbins directed and choreographed it with co-Choreographer, Peter Gennaro. The cast included Chita Rivera as Anita and George Chakiris as Riff who later won an Academy Award playing Bernardo in the film.

There is currently a tour of West Side Story making it's way through Europe which is slated to play at Sadlers Wells for six weeks in the summer before touring the rest of the United Kingdom after which it will return to Sadlers Wells for another 8 week run. And I'm happy to tell you that Manchester is confirmed for the winter of 2008.