Laurents' 'West Side Story' returns to Broadway in Feb.
“West Side Story” will return to Broadway this winter in a new production directed by the musical’s original librettist, Arthur Laurents.
Previews will start February 23, 2009 at Broadway’s Palace Theatre with opening night set for March 19.
Tickets will go on sale to the general public starting October 18.
Casting hasn’t yet been announced but producers in a statement said the original Jerome Robbins choreography will be re-staged by Tony nominee Joey McKneely (whose credits include “The Boy from Oz.”) “West Side Story,” which was based on Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” was composed by Leonard Bernstein and it was lyricist Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway debut.
The 90-year-old Brooklyn-born Laurents last year was nominated for another Tony for his direction of the current Broadway production of “Gypsy,” for which he wrote the book for in 1959.
The new production will first take the stage at Washington D.C.’s National Theatre, (where the musical made its world premiere in 1957,) from December 15 through January 17. In New York, it will play the Palace Theatre located at 1564 Broadway, map.
After the jump, watch a clip of the 1958 cast performing “Cool” on The Ed Sullivan Show:
