Editing West Side Story (section)

==Background==
[[File:I Feel Pretty from West Side Story 1957.JPG|thumb|275px|L-R: [[Frances Taylor Davis|Elizabeth Taylor]],<ref>Dancer and actress [[Frances Taylor Davis]] was billed as Elizabeth Taylor</ref> Carmen Gutierrez, [[Marilyn Cooper]], and [[Carol Lawrence]] from the original Broadway cast sing "[[I Feel Pretty]]" (1957)]]

===Genesis===
In 1949, [[Jerome Robbins]] approached Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents about collaborating on a contemporary musical adaptation of ''Romeo and Juliet''.<ref name=Long /> He proposed that the plot focus on the conflict between an Irish Catholic family and a Jewish family living on the [[Lower East Side]] of [[Manhattan]],<ref name=Long>{{cite book|last=Long|first=Robert Emmet|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rKxJiOAb6LAC&pg=PA96|chapter=West Side Story|title=Broadway, The Golden Years: Jerome Robbins and The Great Choreographer-Directors, 1940 to the Present|location=New York, London|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|year=2001|isbn=0-8264-1462-1|page=96|access-date=January 12, 2022|archive-date=January 12, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220112013454/https://books.google.com/books?id=rKxJiOAb6LAC&pg=PA96|url-status=live}}</ref> during the Easter–[[Passover]] season. The girl has survived the [[Holocaust]] and emigrated from Israel; the conflict was to be centered on [[antisemitism]] of the Catholic "Jets" towards the Jewish "Emeralds" (a name that made its way into the script as a reference).<ref name="Bernstein">[http://www.leonardbernstein.com/studio/element.asp?FeatID=8&AssetID=24 Information from a Leonard Bernstein.com] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325072207/http://www.leonardbernstein.com/studio/element.asp?FeatID=8&AssetID=24 |date=March 25, 2012}}</ref> Eager to write his first musical, Laurents immediately agreed. Bernstein wanted to present the material in operatic form, but Robbins and Laurents resisted the suggestion. They described the project as "lyric theater", and Laurents wrote a first draft he called ''East Side Story''. Only after he completed it did the group realize it was little more than a musicalization of themes that had already been covered in plays like ''[[Abie's Irish Rose]]''. When Robbins opted to drop out, the three men went their separate ways, and the piece was shelved for almost five years.{{sfn|Laurents|2000|pp=329–330}}<ref>[http://www.westsidestory.com/archives_excerpts.php "Excerpts from Bernstein's West Side Log, see 1949 and 1955"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110917184804/http://www.westsidestory.com/archives_excerpts.php |date=September 17, 2011}}, WestSideStory.com, originally published in 1957, accessed August 18, 2011</ref>

In 1955, theatrical producer [[Martin Gabel]] was working on a stage adaptation of the [[James M. Cain]] novel ''[[Serenade (novel)|Serenade]]'', about an opera singer who comes to the realization he is homosexual, and he invited Laurents to write the book. Laurents accepted and suggested Bernstein and Robbins join the creative team. Robbins felt that if the three were going to join forces, they should return to ''East Side Story'', and Bernstein agreed. Laurents, however, was committed to Gabel, who introduced him to the young composer/lyricist [[Stephen Sondheim]]. Sondheim auditioned by playing the score for ''[[Saturday Night (musical)|Saturday Night]]'', his musical that was scheduled to open in the fall. Laurents liked the lyrics but was not impressed with the music. Sondheim did not care for Laurents' opinion. ''Serenade'' ultimately was shelved.{{sfn|Laurents|2000|p=334}}

Laurents was soon hired to write the screenplay for a [[remake]] of the 1934 [[Greta Garbo]] film ''[[The Painted Veil (1934 film)|The Painted Veil]]'' for [[Ava Gardner]]. While in Hollywood, he contacted Bernstein, who was in town conducting at the [[Hollywood Bowl]]. The two met at [[The Beverly Hills Hotel]], and the conversation turned to juvenile delinquent gangs, a fairly recent social phenomenon that had received major coverage on the front pages of the morning newspapers due to a [[Chicano]] turf war. Bernstein suggested they rework ''East Side Story'' and set it in Los Angeles, but Laurents felt he was more familiar with [[Puerto Ricans in the United States]] and [[Harlem]] than he was with [[Mexican Americans]] and [[Olvera Street]]. The two contacted Robbins, who was enthusiastic about a musical with a Latin beat. He arrived in Hollywood to choreograph the dance sequences for the 1956 film ''[[The King and I (1956 film)|The King and I]]'', and he and Laurents began developing the musical while working on their respective projects, keeping in touch with Bernstein, who had returned to New York. When the producer of ''The Painted Veil'' replaced Gardner with [[Eleanor Parker]] and asked Laurents to revise his script with her in mind, he backed out of the film, freeing him to devote all his time to the stage musical.{{sfn|Laurents|2000|pp=336–343}} Bernstein and Laurents, who had been [[Hollywood blacklist|blacklisted]] for alleged communist activities, worked with Robbins even though he had cooperated with the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]].<ref>[[John Rockwell|Rockwell, John]]. [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/books/review/Rockwell.t.html "American Bodies"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308105509/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/books/review/Rockwell.t.html |date=March 8, 2021}}, ''The New York Times'', December 31, 2006. Retrieved August 12, 2019</ref>

===Collaboration and development===
In New York City, Laurents went to the opening night party for a new play by [[Ugo Betti]]. There he met Sondheim, who had heard that ''East Side Story'', now retitled ''West Side Story'', was back on track. Bernstein had decided he needed to concentrate solely on the music, and he and Robbins had invited [[Betty Comden]] and [[Adolph Green]] to write the lyrics, but the team opted to work on ''[[Peter Pan (1954 musical)|Peter Pan]]'' instead. Laurents asked Sondheim if he would be interested in tackling the task. Initially he resisted, because he was determined to write the full score for his next project (''Saturday Night'' had been scrapped). But [[Oscar Hammerstein II|Oscar Hammerstein]] convinced him that he would benefit from the experience, and he accepted.{{sfn|Laurents|2000|pp=346–347}} Meanwhile, Laurents had written a new draft of the book changing the characters' backgrounds: the male lead, once an Irish American, was now of Polish and Irish descent, and the formerly Jewish female lead had become Puerto Rican.<ref name=factsheet>Gottlieb, Jack (Guide and Commentary). [http://www.westsidestory.com/archives_factsheet.php "'West Side Story' Fact Sheet"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201100213/http://www.westsidestory.com/archives_factsheet.php |date=December 1, 2008}}, WestSideStory.com, 2001, accessed August 18, 2011</ref>

The original book Laurents wrote closely adhered to ''Romeo and Juliet'', but the characters based on Shakespeare's [[Rosaline]] and the parents of the doomed lovers were eliminated early on. Later the scenes related to Juliet's faking her death and committing suicide also were deleted. Language posed a problem; [[profanity]] was uncommon in the theater at the time, and slang expressions were avoided for fear they would be dated by the time the production opened. Laurents ultimately invented what sounded like real street talk but actually was not: "cut the frabba-jabba", for example.{{sfn|Laurents|2000|p=349}} Sondheim converted long passages of dialogue, and sometimes just a simple phrase like "A boy like that would kill your brother", into lyrics. With the help of Oscar Hammerstein, Laurents convinced Bernstein and Sondheim to move "One Hand, One Heart", which he considered too pristine for the balcony scene, to the scene set in the bridal shop, and as a result "Tonight" was written to replace it. Laurents felt that the building tension needed to be alleviated in order to increase the impact of the play's tragic outcome, so comic relief in the form of Officer Krupke was added to the second act. He was outvoted on other issues: he felt the lyrics to "[[America (West Side Story song)|America]]" and "[[I Feel Pretty]]" were too witty for the characters singing them, but they stayed in the score and proved to be audience favorites. Another song, "Kid Stuff", was added and quickly removed during the Washington, D.C., tryout when Laurents convinced the others it was helping tip the balance of the show into typical musical comedy.{{sfn|Laurents|2000|pp=350–351}}

Bernstein composed ''West Side Story'' and ''[[Candide (operetta)|Candide]]'' concurrently, which led to some switches of material between the two works.<ref>Some of the music Bernstein wrote for ''West Side Story'', but that was not used in the production, was later integrated into the ''[[Chichester Psalms]]''.</ref> Tony and Maria's duet, "One Hand, One Heart", was originally intended for Cunegonde in ''Candide''. The music of "[[Gee, Officer Krupke]]" was pulled from the Venice scene in ''Candide''.<ref name="Bibliography">Burton, Humphrey. [http://www.westsidestory.com/archives_bibliography.php "Leonard Bernstein by Humphrey Burton, Chapter 26"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081017184521/http://www.westsidestory.com/archives_bibliography.php |date=October 17, 2008}}, WestSideStory.com, 1994, accessed August 18, 2011.</ref> Laurents explained the style that the creative team finally decided on:
{{blockquote|Just as Tony and Maria, our Romeo and Juliet, set themselves apart from the other kids by their love, so we have tried to set them even further apart by their language, their songs, their movement. Wherever possible in the show, we have tried to heighten emotion or to articulate inarticulate adolescence through music, song or dance.<ref>{{cite news |author=Laurents, Arthur |url=http://www.westsidestory.com/archives_herald1.php |title=The Growth of an Idea |work=[[New York Herald Tribune]] |date=August 4, 1957 |access-date=August 18, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926222313/http://www.westsidestory.com/archives_herald1.php |archive-date=September 26, 2011 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all}}</ref>}}

The show was nearly complete in the fall of 1956, but almost everyone on the creative team needed to fulfill other commitments first. Robbins was involved with ''[[Bells Are Ringing (musical)|Bells Are Ringing]]'', then Bernstein with ''Candide'', and in January 1957 ''A Clearing in the Woods'', Laurents' latest play, opened and quickly closed.{{sfn|Laurents|2000|pp=351–352}} When a backers' audition failed to raise any money for ''West Side Story'' late in the spring of 1957, only two months before the show was to begin rehearsals, producer [[Cheryl Crawford]] pulled out of the project.{{sfn|Laurents|2000|pp=326–328}} Every other producer had already turned down the show, deeming it too dark and depressing. Bernstein was despondent, but Sondheim convinced his friend [[Harold Prince|Hal Prince]], who was in Boston overseeing the out-of-town tryout of the new [[George Abbott]] musical ''[[New Girl in Town]]'', to read the script. He liked it but decided to ask Abbott, his longtime mentor, for his opinion, and Abbott advised him to turn it down. Prince, aware that Abbott was the primary reason ''New Girl'' was in trouble, decided to ignore him, and he and his producing partner [[Robert E. Griffith]] flew to New York to hear the score.{{sfn|Laurents|2000|p=354}} In his memoirs, Prince recalled: "Sondheim and Bernstein sat at the piano playing through the music, and soon I was singing along with them".<ref name="Bibliography"/>

===Production period===
[[File:Larry Kert as Tony West Side Story 1957.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Larry Kert]] as Tony, original Broadway production (1957)]]
[[File:Balcony scene West Side Story.JPG|thumb|upright|Kert and Lawrence in the balcony scene (1957)]]
Prince began cutting the budget and raising money. Robbins then announced he did not want to choreograph the show, but changed his mind when Prince agreed to an eight-week dance rehearsal period (instead of the customary four), since there was to be more dancing in ''West Side Story'' than in any previous Broadway show,<ref name="Bibliography"/> and allowed Robbins to hire [[Peter Gennaro]] as his assistant.{{sfn|Laurents|2000|pp=354–356}} Originally, when considering the cast, Laurents wanted [[James Dean]] for the lead role of Tony, but the actor soon died. Sondheim found [[Larry Kert]] and [[Chita Rivera]], who created the roles of Tony and Anita, respectively. Getting the work on stage was still not easy. Bernstein said:
{{blockquote|Everyone told us that [''West Side Story''] was an impossible project ... And we were told no one was going to be able to sing [[augmented fourth]]s, as with "Ma-ri-a" ... Also, they said the score was too rangy for pop music ... Besides, who wanted to see a show in which the first-act curtain comes down on two dead bodies lying on the stage?... And then we had the really tough problem of casting it, because the characters had to be able not only to sing but dance and act and be taken for teenagers. Ultimately, some of the cast were teenagers, some were 21, some were 30 but looked 16. Some were wonderful singers but couldn't dance very well, or vice versa ... and if they could do both, they couldn't act.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Wenner, Jann S. |author2=Levy, Joe |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t2CaFeDa_m0C&q=%22Rolling+Stone%22+%22Leonard+Bernstein%22+Cott&pg=PT190 |chapter=Leonard Bernstein |title=The Rolling Stone Interviews |publisher=Back Bay Books |location=New York |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-316-00526-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/rollingstoneinte00jann}}</ref>}}

Throughout the rehearsal period, the New York newspapers were filled with articles about gang warfare, keeping the show's plot timely. Robbins kept the cast members playing the Sharks and the Jets separate to discourage them from socializing with each other and reminded everyone of the reality of gang violence by posting news stories on the bulletin board backstage.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Roberts|first=Terri|date=Winter 2003|title=West Side Story: 'We were all very young' |url=https://www.sondheimreview.com/magazine/vol-9-no-3-winter-2003/#10|journal=[[The Sondheim Review]]|volume=9|issue=3|pages=28–29|issn=1076-450X|access-date=January 19, 2018|archive-date=July 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713001859/https://www.sondheimreview.com/magazine/vol-9-no-3-winter-2003/#10|url-status=live}}</ref> Robbins wanted a gritty realism from his sneaker- and jeans-clad cast. He gave the ensemble more freedom than Broadway dancers had previously been given to interpret their roles, and the dancers were thrilled to be treated like actors instead of just choreographed bodies.{{sfn|Laurents|2000|pp=357–358}} Robbins gave each dancer a unique gesture repertoire specific to their character.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/musicals0000beri|title=Musicals: An Illustrated Historical Overview|year=1998|publisher=[[ Barron's]]|isbn=9780764104367|last=Bering|first= Rüdiger |author-link=Rüdiger Bering|page=105}}</ref> As the rehearsals wore on, Bernstein fought to keep his score together, as other members of the team called on him to cut out more and more of the sweeping or complex "operatic" passages.<ref name="Bibliography"/> [[Columbia Records]] initially declined to record the [[cast album]], saying the score was too depressing and too difficult.<ref name="Bernstein"/>

There were problems with [[Oliver Smith (designer)|Oliver Smith]]'s designs. His painted backdrops were stunning, but the sets were, for the most part, either shabby looking or too stylized. Prince refused to spend money on new construction, and Smith was obliged to improve what he had as best he could with very little money to do it.{{sfn|Laurents|2000|pp=360–361}} The pre-Broadway run in Washington, D.C., was a critical and commercial success, although none of the reviews mentioned Sondheim, listed as co-lyricist, who was overshadowed by the better-known Bernstein. Bernstein magnanimously removed his name as co-author of the lyrics, although Sondheim was uncertain he wanted to receive sole credit for what he considered to be overly florid contributions by Bernstein. Robbins demanded and received a "Conceived by" credit, and used it to justify his making major decisions regarding changes in the show without consulting the others. As a result, by opening night on Broadway, none of his collaborators were talking to him.{{sfn|Laurents|2000|pp=362–365}}

It was rumored that while Bernstein was away trying to fix the musical ''Candide'', Sondheim wrote some of the music for ''West Side Story'', and that Bernstein's co-lyricist billing disappeared from the credits of ''West Side Story'' during the tryout as a trade-off.<ref>[[Steven Suskin|Suskin, Steven]] (1990). ''Opening Night on Broadway: A Critical Quotebook of the Golden Era of the Musical Theatre''. New York: Schirmer Books, p. 697. {{ISBN|0-02-872625-1}}.</ref> However, [[Steven Suskin]] writes in his book ''Show Tunes'' that "as the writing progressed and the extent of Bernstein's lyric contributions became less, the composer agreed to rescind his credit. ... Contrary to rumor, Sondheim did not write music for the show; his only contribution came on 'Something's Coming'", where he developed the main strain of the chorus from music Bernstein wrote for the verse.<ref>Suskin, Steven (2010). [https://books.google.com/books?id=_3mOZv6OaUIC&dq=Suskin+%22West+Side+Story%22&pg=PA207 ''Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway's Major Composers''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006172420/https://books.google.com/books?id=_3mOZv6OaUIC&pg=PA207&dq=Suskin+%22West+Side+Story%22&hl=en |date=October 6, 2016}} (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press US, p. 206. {{ISBN|0-19-531407-7}}</ref>