Over sixty years after its opening night, West Side Story is perhaps the most famous and beloved of twentieth-century musicals and stands as a colossus of musical and dramatic achievement. It not only helped define a generation of musical theatre lovers but is among the handful of shows that have contributed to our understanding of American musical identity at mid-century. Bringing together contemporary scholars in music, theatre, dance, literature, and performance, this Companion explores this explosive 1950s remake of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and its portrayal of the raw passion, rivalries, jealousy and rage that doom the young lovers to their tragic fate. Organised thematically, chapters range from Broadway's history and precursors to West Side Story; the early careers of its creators; the show's score with emphasis on writing, production, and orchestrations; issues of class, colourism, and racism; New York's gang culture, and how the show's legacy can be found in popular culture throughout the world.
A multi-disciplinary, contemporary analysis of one of the most important musicals of the twentieth century. Leading scholars in music, theatre, dance, literature, and performance introduce the history, creation, content, and legacy of West Side Story, and its cultural contexts and challenges, including class, colourism, and race.
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A multi-disciplinary, contemporary analysis of one of the most important musicals of the twentieth century, its history, and contexts.
List of figures; List of contributors; Introduction; Acknowledgments;
Part I. Before 'West Side Story':
1. Performing social relevance in the
American Musical before 'West Side Story' William A. Everett;
2. Bernstein on
Broadway Helen Smith;
3. In anticipation of 'West Side Story': the confluence
of styles, genres, and influences in the early choreography of Jerome Robbins
Phoebe Rumsey;
4. Arthur Laurents before 'West Side Story' John M. Clum;
5.
Sondheim the kid Steve Swayne;
6. For a small fee in America: producing 'West
Side Story' Laura MacDonald; Part II. The Work Itself and Its Context:
7. The
score: creation, orchestration, unification, and analysis Paul R. Laird;
8.
Un-Gendering 'Somewhere': women's agency and redemption in 'West Side Story'
Katherine Baber;
9. Shakespeare in the city: adapting 'Romeo and Juliet' Jane
Barnette;
10. 'West Side Story' and the Hispanic problem Ernesto
Acevedo-Muñoz;
11. 'West Side Story' and the intersections of class,
colourism, and racism Erica K. Argyropoulos;
12. The real gang history of New
York Elizabeth A. Wells; Part III. The Legacy:
13. 'West Side Story' and the
voice Sylvia Stoner-Hawkins;
14. 'West Side Story'/suite: Jerome Robbins's
Choreo-Directing on Broadway, Hollywood, and ballet stages Dustyn Martincich;
15. Exoticism, race, and the Broadway musical in the 'City of Waltzes':
Marcel Prawy's 1968 'West Side Story' production at the Vienna Volksoper
Martin Nedbal;
16. 'West Side Story' abroad as an American icon Emily Abrams
Ansari, Anne Searcy, Paul R. Laird, Gonzalo Fernández Monte, Elizabeth Wells,
and Aino Kukkonen; Bibliography; Index.
Paul R. Laird is Professor Emeritus of Musicology at the University of Kansas. As a scholar of musical theatre, he specialises in the careers of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Schwartz. With William A. Everett, he co-edited three editions of The Cambridge Companion to the Musical. Elizabeth A. Wells is Professor of Musicology at Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB, Canada. Her first book on West Side Story was published in 2011 and won the American Musicological Society's Music in American Culture award.
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