West Side Story, Directed by Arthur Laurents, Confirms Broadway Dates

The stars aren't set, but the dates are: The much-talked-about Broadway revival of West Side Story is confirmed for the coming season, directed by its 90-year-old librettist, Arthur Laurents. The musical will first play an engagement at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C., where it made its world premiere in 1957, running December 16-January 17, 2009. Broadway previews will begin on February 23 at a Nederlander theater to be announced, opening in March. The original Jerome Robbins choreography will be restaged by Joey McKneely The Boy from Oz, The Life.

"This show will be radically different from any other production of West Side Story ever done," Laurents, a 2008 Tony nominee for his direction of Gypsy, said in a statement. "The musical theater 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 revival, with an onstage cast of 37 and 30 musicians in the orchestra pit, will selectively weave Spanish throughout both the book and songs. Casting and members of the creative team have not been announced.

West Side Story features a book by Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim in his Broadway debut, and includes such classic songs as "Something's Coming," "Tonight," "America," "I Feel Pretty" and "Somewhere." The musical transports the tale of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to the turbulent streets of the Upper West Side in 1950s New York City. Star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria find themselves caught between the rival street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds, the "Jets" and the "Sharks." West Side Story brings to life their struggle to exist together in a world of violence, hate and prejudice.

The original production of West Side Story opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 26, 1957, directed by Jerome Robbins and featuring Larry Kert as Tony, Carol Lawrence as Maria and Chita Rivera as Anita. It ran for 738 performance. The movie version, directed by Robbins and Robert Wise, was released in 1961 and starred Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer as Maria and Tony and Rita Moreno as Anita. It won 10 Academy Awards out of its 11 nominated categories. Onstage, West Side Story was revived in a limited engagement at City Center in 1964. Last seen on Broadway in 1980, the show was again directed by Robbins and received Tony nominations for Best Revival, as well as for Debbie Allen as Anita and Josie de Guzman as Maria.

The 2009 revival of West Side Story is being produced by Kevin McCollum, James L. Nederlander and Jeffrey Seller.