WEST SIDE STORY Comes to NJPAC’s Prudential Hall, Now thru 5/6

The tour of the Broadway revival of West Side Story is coming to  New Jersey. West Side Story opens at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center tonight, May 1, 2012. Award-winning librettist Arthur Laurents' Broadway direction will be recreated for the tour by David Saint, the Associate Director on Broadway. Mr. Saint is also the artistic director of the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, NJ. The original Jerome Robbins choreography is reproduced by Tony Award-nominee Joey McKneely (The Boy from Oz, The Life).

West Side Story opens tonight, May 1^st at 7:30 p.m. and continues on Wednesday, May 2^nd at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, May 3^rd at 1:30 and 7:30 p.m.; Friday, May 4^th at 8 p.m.; Saturday, May 5^th at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 6^th at 3 p.m. Ticket prices range from $29 to $126 and can be purchased by telephone at 1-888-GO-NJPAC (1-888-466-5722), by visiting the NJPAC Box Office at One Center Street in downtown Newark, or online at www.njpac.org. West Side Story is made possible in part by TD Bank, New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Discover Jersey Arts. 

The new Broadway cast album of West Side Story  won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album on January 31, 2010. The Bernstein and Sondheim score is considered to be one of Broadway's finest and features such classics of the American musical theatre as "Something's Coming," "Tonight," "America," "I Feel Pretty" and "Somewhere."

The new Broadway production began previews at the Palace Theatre on Broadway Monday, February 23, 2009, opened to critical acclaim breaking box office records at the Palace Theatre on Thursday, March 19, 2009, and recouped its $14 million investment after running only 30 weeks. The Broadway production played its final performance January 2, 2011. The musical played 27 previews and 748 regular performances, making it the longest-running production of the groundbreaking musical in Broadway history. The original production, which had held the record, played 732 performances on Broadway.   

West Side Story  features scenic designs by James Youmans (Gypsy), costumes by Tony Award nominee David C. Woolard (The Farnsworth Invention, The Who's Tommy), lighting by Tony Award winner Howell Binkley (Gypsy, Jersey Boys), sound design by Tony Award nomineeDan Moses Schreier (Gypsy, A Catered Affair) and hair by Mark Adam Rampmeyer (The Farnsworth Invention). 

West Side Story  is written by three theatrical luminaries: two-time Tony Award winner Arthur Laurents (book) and multiple Tony and Grammy Award winners Leonard Bernstein (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics) in his Broadway debut.  

West Side Story  is produced by Kevin McCollum, James L. Nederlander, Jeffrey Seller with Terry Allen Kramer, Sander Jacobs, Roy Furman / Jill Furman Willis, Robyn Goodman / Walt Grossman, Hal Luftig, Roy Miller and Broadway Across America.