- Person
- Leonard Bernstein
- Lived
- 1918–1990
- Field
- Music
- From
- American
The story
The idea for West Side Story began in 1949, when the choreographer Jerome Robbins approached Leonard Bernstein and the playwright Arthur Laurents about a modern musical version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Their first plan, East Side Story, was set among Catholic and Jewish families on Manhattan's Lower East Side, but it was shelved. Several years later, as newspaper headlines filled with stories of youth gang violence, Bernstein and Laurents revived the project and moved it to the Upper West Side, where a white gang, the Jets, would clash with the Sharks, young migrants newly arrived from Puerto Rico. A young lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, joined the team, making his Broadway debut.
The story follows Tony, a former member of the Jets, and Maria, the sister of the Sharks' leader, whose love is destroyed by prejudice and violence. Bernstein's music was something new for Broadway. It blended jazz, Latin dance rhythms, symphonic sweep and musical-comedy conventions into songs that were instantly memorable, such as Maria, Tonight, America, Something's Coming and Somewhere. Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal orchestrated the score following Bernstein's detailed instructions.
The original production, directed and choreographed by Robbins, opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on 26 September 1957 and ran for 732 performances before touring the country. It received six Tony Award nominations, winning two. A London production that opened in 1958 ran even longer, with 1,039 performances. In 1960 Bernstein arranged the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, which remain popular with orchestras worldwide.
The 1961 film, directed by Robert Wise and Robbins, won ten Academy Awards including Best Picture, among them a groundbreaking award for the Puerto Rican-born actress Rita Moreno. A second film, directed by Steven Spielberg, followed in 2021. In 1984 Bernstein conducted his only complete recording of the score, with the opera singers Kiri Te Kanawa and José Carreras, and it became an international bestseller.
With its dark theme, extended dance scenes and focus on social problems, West Side Story marked a turning point in musical theatre. It proved that a popular musical could carry real tragedy and social comment, and it continues to be performed regularly around the world by professional companies and schools alike.
Why it matters
West Side Story brought serious themes of prejudice and violence to mass audiences through some of the most loved music of the 20th century.
About Leonard Bernstein
Conductor & composer; "West Side Story," New York Philharmonic, music educator to a generation through the Young People's Concerts.
More about Leonard Bernstein
- Leonard Bernstein turned a prize into a school programmeWhen Leonard Bernstein won Japan's Praemium Imperiale in 1990, he used the 100,000 dollar prize to start an arts-in-education project that became the Artful Learning programme.
- Leonard Bernstein taught classical music to millions on TVLeonard Bernstein, the first American-born music director of the New York Philharmonic, wrote and hosted 53 televised Young People's Concerts, shown in more than 40 countries.
- Leonard Bernstein brought Mahler's symphonies back to lifeLeonard Bernstein was a critical figure in the modern revival of Gustav Mahler, recording his symphonies and helping make them central to the orchestral repertoire.
- Bernstein's Harvard lectures linked music and languageIn 1973 Leonard Bernstein gave six Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard, The Unanswered Question, applying ideas from linguistics to explain how music communicates.
- Bernstein's Ode to Freedom marked the Berlin Wall's fallOn Christmas Day 1989 Leonard Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Ninth in East Berlin to celebrate the fall of the Wall, changing the word joy to freedom for an audience of about 100 million.
- Leonard Bernstein founded the Pacific Music Festival in 1990In his final summer, 1990, Leonard Bernstein founded the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, which has since trained more than 3,200 young musicians.
- Bernstein's Young People's Concerts taught millions musicFrom 1958 to 1972 Leonard Bernstein presented 53 televised Young People's Concerts, often called the most influential music education series ever produced for television.
- Leonard Bernstein conducted to support Amnesty InternationalLeonard Bernstein gave benefit concerts for Amnesty International in Munich in 1976 and Berlin in 1979, and set up a fund in his wife's name to aid human rights activists.
- Leonard Bernstein was an early champion of AIDS researchLeonard Bernstein took part in one of the earliest AIDS fundraisers in 1983 and later helped raise the first million dollars for amfAR's community-based clinical trials.
- Leonard Bernstein led a Journey for Peace to HiroshimaIn 1985 Leonard Bernstein took the European Community Youth Orchestra on a Journey for Peace tour, performing at the Hiroshima Peace Ceremony on the 40th anniversary of the bombing.
Sources
- Leonard Bernstein Wikipedia
- West Side Story Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.