West Side Story

West Side Story West Side Story is an American musical with a book rary musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet . He prpro-o- byby Arthur Laurents, mmususiic bbyy Leonard Bernstein,, posed that the plot focus on the conflict between an Irish libretto/lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and conception and Catholic family and a Jewish family living on the Lower choreography byby Jerome Robbins..[1] It was inspired by East Side ofof Manhattan,,[6] during the Easter–Passover William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet .. season. The girl has survivvived the Holocaust and emi- The story is set in the Upper West Side neighborhood grated from Israel; the conflict was to be centered around in New York City in the mid-1950s, an ethnic, blue- anti-Semitism of the Catholic “Jets” towards the Jewish “Emeralds” (a name that made its way into the script as collar ne neighighborhood. (In the early 1960s much of thethe [7] neineighborhood would be clecleared in anan urban renewal a reference). Eager to write his first musical, Laurents project for the Lincoln Center, changing the neighbor- immediately agreed. Bernstein wanted to present the ma- hood’s character.)[2][3] The musical explores the rivalry terial in operatic form, but Robbins and Laurents resisted between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs the suggestion. They described the project as “lyric the- of different ethnic backgrounds. The members of the ater”, and Laurents wrote a first draft he called East Side Sharks, from Puerto Rico, are taunted by the Jets, a Story. Only after he completed it did the group realize it white gang.[4] The young protagonist, Tony, a former was little more than a musicalization of themes that had member of the Jets and best friend of the gang leader, alreadybeencoveredinin plaplaysys liklikee Abie’s Irish Rose. When he opted to drop out, the three men went their separate Riff, falls in love with Maria, the sister of Bernardo, the [8][9] leader of the Sharks. The dark theme, sophisticated mu- ways, and the piece was shelved for almost five years. sic, extended dance scenes, and focus on social prob- In 1955, theatrical producer Martin Gabel was working lelemsmsmarkekedd aa turturningg pointnt inin Ameriricanmusicicalal thetheateater.r. on a stage adaptation of the James M. Cain novel Ser- Bernstein’s score for the musical includes “Something’s enade, about an opera singer who comes to the realiza- Cominging”,”, ""Maria",", ""America",", ""Somewhere",", ""Tonight",", tion he is homosexual, and he invited Laurents to write “Jet Song”, “I Feel Pretty”, "A Boy Like That", “One the book. Laurents accepted and suggested Bernsteinein Hand, One Heart”, “Gee, Officer Krupke”, and "Cool".". and Robbins join the creative team. Robbins felt if the The original 1957 Broadway production, directed and three were going to join forces, they should return to East choreographed byby Jerome Robbins and produced byby Side Story, and Bernstein agreed. Laurents, however, was RobertertE.E. GriffithandHarold Prince,, markeded Sondheiheim’s committed to Gabel, who introduced him to the young Broadway debut. It ran for 732 performances before go- composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Sondhdheieim audi-di- ing on tour. The production was nominated for six Tony tiotionedbybyplaplayiyingng thescorefor Saturday Night ,, hihiss musicicalal Awards including Best Musical in 1957, [5] but the award that was scheduled to open in the fall. Laurents liked the lyrics but was not impressed with the music. Sondheim for Best Musical went to Meredith Willson's's The Music did not care for Laurents’ opinion. Serenade ultimately Man. Robbins won the Tony for his choreography and [10] OliverSmith wowonn fforor hishissceninicc dedesisigns. Theshshowowhadanan was shelved. even longer-running London production, a number of re- Laurents was soon hired to write the screenplay for a vivvivalsalsand internationalproductions. A 1961 musical film remake of the 1934 Greta Garbo film The Painted Veil of the same name, directed by Robert Wise and Robbins, forfor Ava Gardner. While in Hollylywowood, he cocontantactectedd starred Natalie Wood,, Richard Beymer,, Rita Moreno,, Bernstein, who was in town conducting at the Hollywood George Chakiris and Russ Tamblyn. The film was nomi- Bowl. The two met at thee Beverly Hills Hotel, and the nated for eleven Academy Awards and won ten, including conversation turned toto juvenile delinquent gangs, a fairly George Chakiris for Supporting Actor,, Rita Moreno for recent social phenomenon that had received major cover- Supporting Actress, and the Best Picture.. age on the front pages of the morning newspapers due to aa Chicano turf war. Bernstein suggested they rework East Side Story and set it in Los Angeles, but Laurents felt he 1 1 Background wasmoreffamiliariarwithPuerto Ricansand Harlem thathann hehe was with Mexican Americans and Olvera Street. The two contacted Robbins, who was enthusiastic about a musical 1.1.1 Genenessisis with a Latin beat. He arrived in Hollywood to choreograph the dance sequences for The King and I , and he and In 1947, Jerome Robbins approached Leonard Bernstein Laurents began developing the musical while working on and Arthur Laurents about collaborating on a contempo- 11 2 1 BACKGROUND their respective projects, keeping in touch with Bernstein, the two works.[16] Tony and Maria’s duet, “One Hand, who had returned to New York. When the producer of One Heart”, was originally intended for Cunegonde in The Painted Veil replaced Gardner with Eleanor Parker Candide. The music of “Gee, Officer Krupke” was pulled and asked Laurents to revise his script with her in mind, from the Venice scene in Candide.[17] Laurents explained he backed out of the film, freeing him to devote all his the style that the creative team finally decided on:[18] time to the stage musical.[11] Just as Tony and Maria, our Romeo and Juliet, set themselves apart from the other kids 1.2 Collaboration and development by their love, so we have tried to set them even further apart by their language, their songs, In New York, Laurents went to the opening night party their movement. Wherever possible in the for a new play by Ugo Betti, and there he met Sond- show, we have tried to heighten emotion or to heim, who had heard that East Side Story, now retitled articulate inarticulate adolescence through mu- West Side Story, was back on track. Bernstein had de- sic, song or dance. cided he needed to concentrate solely on the music, and he and Robbins had invited Betty Comden and Adolph Green to write the lyrics, but the team opted to work on The show was nearly complete in the fall of 1956, but Peter Pan instead. Laurents asked Sondheim if he would almost everyone on the creative team needed to fulfill be interested in tackling the task. Initially he resisted, other commitmentsfirst. Robbins wasinvolved withBells because he was determined to write the full score for his Are Ringing, then Bernstein with Candide, and in Jan- next project (Saturday Night hadbeen aborted),butOscar uary 1957 A Clearing in the Woods , Laurents’ latest play, Hammerstein convinced him that he would benefit from opened and quickly closed.[19] When a backers’ audi- the experience, and he accepted.[12] Meanwhile, Laurents tion failed to raise any money for West Side Story late had written a new draft of the book changing the charac- in the spring of 1957, only two months before the show ters’ backgrounds: Anton, once an Irish American, was wasto begin rehearsals, producerCherylCrawford pulled now of Polish and Irish descent, and the formerly Jewish out of the project.[20] Every other producer had already Maria had become a Puerto Rican.[13] turned down the show, deeming it too dark and depress- ing. Bernstein was despondent, but Sondheim convinced The original book Laurents wrote closely adhered to his friend Hal Prince, who was in Boston overseeing the Romeo and Juliet , but the characters based on Rosaline out-of-town tryout of the new George Abbott musical and the parents of the doomed lovers were eliminated New Girl in Town, to read the script. He liked it but de- early on. Later the scenes related to Juliet’s faking her cided to ask Abbott, his longtime mentor, for his opin- death and committing suicide also were deleted. Lan- ion, and Abbott advised him to turn it down. Prince, guage posed a problem; four-letter curse words were un- aware that Abbott was the primary reason New Girl was common in the theater at the time, and slang expressions in trouble, decided to ignore him, and he and his produc- were avoided for fear they would be dated by the time the ing partner Robert Griffith flew to New York to hear the production opened. Laurents ultimately invented what score.[21] In hismemoirs, Prince recalled, “Sondheim and sounded like real street talk but actually was not: “cut [14] Bernstein sat at the piano playing through the music, and the frabba-jabba”, for example. Sondheim converted soon I was singing along with them.”[17] long passages of dialogue, and sometimes just a simple phrase like “A boy like that would kill your brother”, into lyrics. With the help of Oscar Hammerstein, Laurents 1.3 Production period convinced Bernstein and Sondheim to move “One Hand, One Heart”, which he considered too pristine for the bal- Prince began cutting the budget and raising money. Rob- conyscene, to the scene set in the bridal shop, and as a re- bins then announced he did not want to choreograph the sult “Tonight” was written to replace it. Laurents felt that show, but changed his mind when Prince agreed to an thebuilding tension needed to be alleviatedin order to in- eight-week dance rehearsal period (instead of the cus- crease the impact of the play’s tragic outcome, so comic tomary four), since there was to be more dancing in West relief in the form of Officer Krupke was added to the Side Story than in any previous Broadway show,[17] andal- second act.

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