West Side Story is a timeless classic, but despite six decades of history, you've never seen a production like this one. Under the direction of the innovative Ivo van Hove, the beloved story of star-crossed lovers and rival gangs takes on a more urgent and modern context. Featuring original choreography by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and a stage and video design by Jan Versweyveld, this West Side Story offers a radical, thrilling new interpretation of this iconic work, featuring 33 young performers making their Broadway debuts. Don't miss this opportunity to see a landmark in musical theater history as if for the very first time.
The revival of West Side Story that opened tonight on Broadway is being touted as a 21st Century reinvention of the musical, with director Ivo van Hove discussing in interviews the random senselessness of racism and violence, disregarding how the material so specifically reflected the era it came from. While new artists should be encouraged to interpret older plays and musicals differently from their predecessors, especially a piece like West Side Story which, through its Broadway revivals and extremely popular film version, has been tied to visuals invented by Robbins (the snapping fingers, the balletic interpretation of violence), there is such a thing as having fresh concepts clash with the material, diluting its effectiveness.
Van Hove's West Side Story isn't bad solely because he subverts the live action to video images and minimizes the living, churning story at hand. He's compressed the show to a single unbroken act of 105 minutes, eliminating material that allows the story to breathe. That crucial oxygen was originally supplied by book writer Arthur Laurents, composer Bernstein, director/choreographer Jerome Robbins and, at the time, novice lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Collaboration, as Sondheim stresses in his own recounting of the show's gestation in Finishing the Hat, was central to making all the elements merge into that most memorable whole.
1957 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
1958 | West End |
London Production West End |
1959 | US Tour |
National Tour US Tour |
1960 | Broadway |
Return Engagement [Broadway] Broadway |
1964 | Broadway |
City Center Revival Broadway |
1968 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
1980 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
1991 | Milburn, NJ (Regional) |
Paper Mill Production Milburn, NJ (Regional) |
1992 | Regional (UK) |
Regional Revival Regional (UK) |
1998 | West End |
London Revival West End |
2006 | Houston, TX (Regional) |
Theatre Under the Stars Production Houston, TX (Regional) |
2009 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
2010 | US Tour |
National Tour US Tour |
2015 | Washington, DC (Regional) |
Signature Theatre Production Washington, DC (Regional) |
2018 | Washington, DC (Regional) |
National Symphony Orchestra Concert Revival Washington, DC (Regional) |
2018 | Regional (US) |
100th Birthday Celebration Revival Production Regional (US) |
2020 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2020 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Choreography | Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker |
2020 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical | Yesenia Ayala |
2020 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Orchestrations | Jonathan Tunick |
2020 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Projection Design | Luke Halls |
2020 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical | West Side Story |
2020 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design for a Musical | Tom Gibbons |
2020 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Isaac Powell |
2020 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical | West Side Story |
2020 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Musical | Isaac Powell |
2020 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Shereen Pimentel |
2020 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Ivo van Hove |
2020 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Projection Design | Luke Halls |
2020 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical | West Side Story |
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