From Broadway To 52nd Street
West Side Story opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 26, 1957. Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein composed and wrote the score for the musical that ran 732 performances. Larry Kert, Carol Lawrence, Chita Rivera, Mickey Cain and Ken Leroy were the stars of the show that gave the jazz world such classics as Somewhere, I Feel Pretty, Tonight, Maria and Cool.
The Story: On the streets of West Side Manhattan in the late summer of 1957, there is mounting racial tension between rival white American and Puerto Rican gangs to maintain control of the neighborhood – the Jets and the Sharks. An interracial relationship blossoms between Tony and Maria who see past their ethnic differences. However, Maria’s brother Bernardo and leader of the Sharks does not want this love-match to succeed. Destined to be short-lived, a rumble between the two gangs ensues, Maria begs Tony to stop it, the fight escalates from lists to knives and Tony ultimately kills Bernardo.
When Bernardo’s girlfriend Anita learns of his death she is overcome with emotion and seeking out Maria, who already knows, discovers Tony is with her. Tony leaves for refuge at Doc’s drugstore after which they learn that Chino was seeking revenge for Bernardo by shooting Tony. Maria begs Anita to go tell Tony but after a mock rape at the hands of the Jets, Anita delivers a different message – that Maria is dead. In shock Tony runs out screaming for Chino to come kill him. On the playground Tony and Maria see each other but before they can embrace Chino shoots and kills Tony.
Broadway History: The Off-Off-Broadway movement began in 1958 as a reaction to Off-Broadway, and a “complete rejection of commercial theatre”.[2] Among the first venues for what would soon be called “Off-Off-Broadway” were coffeehouses in Greenwich Village, particularly the Caffe Cino at 31 Cornelia Street, operated by the eccentric Joe Cino, who early on took a liking to actors and playwrights and agreed to let them stage plays there without bothering to read the plays first, or to even find out much about the content. Also integral to the rise of Off-Off-Broadway were Ella Stewart at La MaMa and Al Carmines at the Judson Poets’ Theater, located at Judson Memorial Church, Playbox Studio, New York Theatre Ensemble, The Old Reliable, The Dove Company and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.
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