麻豆约拍

...Story Night

Something's Coming

First of two documentaries marking the fiftieth anniversary of the opening on September 26th 1957 of a new Broadway show that would change the face of musical theatre forever.

The show was West Side Story, based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and set against gang warfare in the New York ghetto. Plus how the stage show and the movie musical have continued to influence generations across the world.

Chita Rivera, who originated the role of Anita on Broadway and in London's West End, describes how West Side Story eventually made it to Broadway, in spite of its difficult subject matter, backers pulling out and the arguments over which numbers stayed and which went.

Interviewees include book writer Arthur Laurents; orchestrator Sid Ramin; Jamie and Nina Bernstein, the daughters of Leonard Bernstein; Carol Lawrence, who played the first Maria; and theatre critic John Lahr.

Voices from the archive include Jerome Robbins, and Larry Kert who played Tony and Tommy Abbott who played Gee-tar.