WAKEY WAKEY BROADWAY FANS. You are rising up each morning with?New York Broadway Tours Top 30 Tony Awards countdown as we celebrate the best of the Theatre world gearing up for Broadway’s biggest night just 21 days away.
At #21 on our countdown today is one of the most iconic and beloved Musicals of all time which later came into our hearts as a film. A tale of 2 dangerous gangs and a young couple from both rival sides that fall in love. We are talking about Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim‘s legendary musical masterpiece West Side Story on Broadway. The show was also co-written by Arthur Laurents and is set as a modern day version of William Shakespeare‘s classic Romeo and Juliet.
From the 2009 telecast, Tony nominees Matt Cavanaugh and Josefina Scaglione, Tony winner Karen Olivo, and cast members of that same year’s revival perform the iconic DANCE AT THE GYM scene (aka MAMBO).
WEST SIDE STORY first premiered in Washington D.C and Philadelphia before moving to Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre for 732 performances, took a break from Broadway to tour the world, and then returned to that same Theatre in 1960 for an additional 253 performances. The original production was nominated for 6 Tony Awards in 1958 where it won 2 including Best Choreography (for Jerome Robbins). A year later, the iconic 1961 film version starring Natalie Wood and Rita Moreno came out to Theatres everywhere earning critical acclaim nominated for 11 Academy Awards in 1962 winning 10 including Best Picture. WEST SIDE STORY would later be revived twice. In 1980, it played Broadway’s Minskoff Theatre for 333 performances and got nominated for 3 Tony Awards that year including Best Revival of a Musical but it lost all of it’s categories. The most recent revival in 2009 played Broadway’s Palace Theatre running for a total of 775 performance. This revival was well known to have include several songs and dialogue in the show translated into Spanish by one of this year’s Tony nominees… our very own Lin-Manuel Miranda. The revival was nominated for 4 Tony Awards that year including (again) for Best Revival of A Musical. It took home only 1 award for Best Performance By A Featured Actress in A Musical for Karen Olivo.
FUN FACT: Did you know the film version of WEST SIDE STORY was shot on location of what is now Lincoln Center before it was even built?
Isn’t WEST SIDE STORY one of the greatest musicals of all time?!
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Author: NYBroadwayTours
Awesome.
