Happy 60th Anniversary to WSS!

Today, September 26, marks the 60th anniversary of West Side Story's Broadway opening at the Winter Garden Theater. This show has had such an impact on me that I thought it would be nice to have a place to share memories about it on such a momentous day.

I first discovered WSS through a community theatre production over two years ago. Before then I'd been sort of into theatre but I'd only seen a few shows that I'd liked. This show pushes me firmly over the edge and into musical-obsessive territory! All I can remember about the production itself was that Chino looked like Leo DiCaprio and the balcony almost got stuck at the end of "Tonight". However, I was engrossed for every minute. The story, the choreography, the music (!!)-I loved every bit. I was actually convinced everything was going to turn out okay for Tony and Maria. After that gunshot-color me absolutely gobsmacked. I realized later that WSS was the first tragic musical I'd ever seen! By the next day I'd bought the OBCR and had plans to watch the movie.

In the following months I was in a constant state of WSS-induced reverie. Whether I was on my daily cast album listen or watching the movie for the eighth time in as many months, it was always on my mind. I grew to deeply appreciate the talents of Larry Kerr, Carol Lawrence, Chita Rivera, and Rita Moreno. Honestly, I can't explain why I love this show so much. I guess the fact that the story is so powerfully emotional and the score/choreography are so genius that it makes for a pretty heady concoction. I'm so thankful it's been a part of my life and so many others in its long and fruitful 60 years.

If not the greatest musical ever written and staged(and I strongly think it is), then unquestionably in the top five. A great shame Robbins, Bernstein, Sondheim and Laurents never successfully reunited.

It's lovely to hear these responses! Daredevil, I promise I know that it's Kert rather than Kerr...darn autocorrect. I hope you enjoy the forum, you lucky duck!

green waver, did you know that Robbins, Bernstein and Sondheim did reunite to create a musical in the mid sixties. It was to be an adaptation of Bertold Brecht's The Exception and the Rule (John Guare was hired to write the book) and it was to star Zero Mostel; the rest of the cast were all to be black actors. In the middle of auditions, Robbins abruptly left the project, and it ended there.

Robbins, Laurents, & Sondheim did reunite to create Gypsy.

And all four of them reunited for the 1980 Broadway revival, with Debbie Allen, Josie De Guzman, Ken Marshall, and Hector Mercado. They were will all brilliant, but unfortunately, they all still carried the same grudges they had carried since the 1957 original.

I just posted some old threads about the revival.