![]() The two met at The Beverly Hills Hotel, and the conversation turned to juvenile delinquent gangs, a fairly recent social phenomenon that had received major coverage on the front pages of the morning newspapers due to a Chicano turf war. While in Hollywood, he contacted Bernstein, who was in town conducting at the Hollywood Bowl. Laurents was soon hired to write the screenplay for a remake of the 1934 Greta Garbo film The Painted Veil for Ava Gardner. Sondheim did not care for Laurents' opinion. Laurents liked the lyrics but was not impressed with the music. Sondheim auditioned by playing the score for Saturday Night, his musical that was scheduled to open in the fall. Laurents, however, was committed to Gabel, who introduced him to the young composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Robbins felt if the three were going to join forces, they should return to East Side Story, and Bernstein agreed. ![]() Laurents accepted and suggested Bernstein and Robbins join the creative team. Cain novel Serenade, about an opera singer who comes to the realization he is homosexual, and he invited Laurents to write the book. In 1955, theatrical producer Martin Gabel was working on a stage adaptation of the James M. When Robbins opted to drop out, the three men went their separate ways, and the piece was shelved for almost five years. Only after he completed it did the group realize it was little more than a musicalization of themes that had already been covered in plays like Abie's Irish Rose. They described the project as "lyric theater", and Laurents wrote a first draft he called East Side Story. Bernstein wanted to present the material in operatic form, but Robbins and Laurents resisted the suggestion. Eager to write his first musical, Laurents immediately agreed. The girl has survived the Holocaust and emigrated from Israel the conflict was to be centered on anti-Semitism of the Catholic "Jets" towards the Jewish "Emeralds" (a name that made its way into the script as a reference). He proposed that the plot focus on the conflict between an Irish Catholic family and a Jewish family living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, during the Easter– Passover season. In 1949, Jerome Robbins approached Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents about collaborating on a contemporary musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. A 2021 film adaptation, directed by Steven Spielberg was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, along with six additional nominations, winning one Oscar.īackground L-R: Elizabeth Taylor, Carmen Gutierrez, Marilyn Cooper, and Carol Lawrence from the original Broadway cast sing " I Feel Pretty" (1957) Genesis A 1961 musical film adaptation, co-directed by Robert Wise and Robbins, was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won ten, including Best Picture. ![]() The show had an even longer-running West End production, a number of revivals, and international productions. The production was nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, in 1958, winning two. It ran for 732 performances before going on tour. The original 1957 Broadway production, directed and choreographed by Robbins, marked Sondheim's Broadway debut. ![]() The dark theme, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, tragic love story, and focus on social problems marked a turning point in musical theatre. The young protagonist, Tony, a former member of the Jets and best friend of the gang's leader, Riff, falls in love with Maria, the sister of Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks. The Sharks, who are recent migrants from Puerto Rico, and the Jets, who are white, vie for dominance of the neighborhood, and the police try to keep order. The musical explores the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, the story is set in the mid-1950s in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, then a multiracial, blue-collar neighborhood. West Side Story is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents.
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