It was announced this week that the long awaited revival of West Side Story will begin previews on February 23, 2009 with the official opening planned for March 19, 2009 after an out of town engagement between December 16, 2008 and January 17, 2009 at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. where the musical made its world premiere in 1957.
This is the second revival endeavor in the past two years for nonagenarian Arthur Laurents who was nominated this past year for a Tony for his direction of Gypsy.
Mr. Laurents has stated, “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." The fact that he can still speak so eloquently for a man of 90 is impressive, but to still have a vision and the spunk to want to take on such a daunting task of reincarnating this musical classic is very inspirational.
Laurents, for those few who don't know, wrote the books for both West Side Story and Gypsy. West Side Story's score was created by Leonard Bernstein (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics) in his Broadway debut. The show was directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins whose original Tony-winning choreography will be recreated by Tony Award nominee, Joey McKneely (The Boy From Oz). 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 the book and music.
The show takes Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to the upper west side of New York City and the turbulence between rival street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds, the Jets and the Sharks in the 1950's. Two star-crossed lovers, Tony and Maria, find themselves caught in the middle of the rivalry. The Spanish dialogue will not only make the production more contemporary, but will emphasize the conflict and misunderstanding between the Sharks and the Jets.
The Bernstein/Sondheim score is considered to be one of Broadway's finest and features such classics of American musical theatre as "Tonight", "Somewhere", "America,"and "I Feel Pretty".
This is one to look forward to, even just to see what Arthur Laurents has up his sleeve and how well he can deliver. One good thing about West Side Story opening in the 2008-2009 Tony season, it won't have to go up against In the Heights (which won the 2007-2008 Tony award for Best Musical) with its very optimistic Latino perspective which could have had the potential of creating a whole new type of rivalry.
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