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>West Side
Story
Recording
Bernstein
Sondheim
Laurents
Juliet
1958 Broadway revival
1958 West End
1960
Broadway revival
1961 Film
1980 Broadway revival
1997 UK
tour & West End revival
2008 West End revival & UK tour
2009
Broadway revival & US tour
2010 Wakefield Youth Music
Theatre
West Side Story is an American musical with a book by Arthur Laurents, music
by Leonard
Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and choreography by Jerome
Robbins. The musical's plot and story are based on William
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
Set in New York City in the mid-1950s, the musical explores the rivalry between the Jets and the
Sharks, two teenage street gangs of
different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The members of the Sharks are first-generation
Americans from Puerto Rico taunted by the Jets, a working-class white [1] group who consider
themselves the true Americans. The young protagonist, Tony, one of the Jets,
falls in love with Maria, the sister of Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks. The
dark theme, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, and focus on social
problems marked a turning point in American musical theatre. Bernstein's score for the
musical has become extremely popular; it includes "Something's Coming", "Maria", "America", "Somewhere", "Tonight", "Jet
Song", "I
Feel Pretty", "One Hand, One Heart", "Gee, Officer Krupke" and "Cool".
The original 1957 Broadway production, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins and
produced by Robert E. Griffith and Harold Prince, marked Stephen Sondheim's Broadway debut. It ran for
732 performances (a successful run for the time), before going on tour. The
production garnered a Tony
Award nomination for Best Musical in 1957, but the award went to Meredith Willson's
The Music Man. It
won a Tony Award in 1957 for Robbins' choreography. The show had an even longer-running
London production, a number of revivals and international success. The
production spawned an innovative, award-winning 1961 musical
film of the same name, directed by Robert Wise and Robbins, and starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris and Russ Tamblyn. It won ten Academy
Awards out of eleven nominations, and it is produced frequently by schools,
regional theatres, and occasionally by opera companies.
Somewhere there is a place for us.