In August 1957, a musical made its world premiere on the stage of Washington’s National Theatre. The show traveled to Philadelphia and opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre about a month later.
The rest is history. And history is returning to Washington as a new production of “West Side Story” again makes its debut at the National.
Several decades in the making, this project is a tribute to the three men who created the musical theater take on the “Romeo and Juliet” story: the late composer Leonard Bernstein, the lyricist Stephen Sondheim and the writer Arthur Laurents.
Not only are the latter two artists still professionally active 50 years later, but Laurents — at age 90 — is directing the show. This venture follows his 2008 Tony Award nomination for directing “Gypsy,” which continues to ride high with another of his evergreen librettos.
Along with a cast of 37, many of them Broadway veterans, this production boasts a pit orchestra of 30, a Maria (Josefina Scaglione) discovered in Argentina during an international search, and a mixture of Spanish and English to represent the ethnic backgrounds of the gangs, the Puerto Rican “Sharks” and the American “Jets.”
“This show will be radically different from any other production of ‘West Side Story’ ever done,” Laurents said.
Nobody knows and appreciates the vision and talent that went into “West Side Story” more intimately than Jamie Bernstein, the composer’s daughter.
“When we began thinking about this production, the only vision we had for the singer playing Maria was that she should be very young, the younger the better, because she and Tony are teenagers,” Bernstein said. “She will sing her solo ‘I Feel Pretty’ in Spanish, but their duet will be in English. This is something they never thought about for the original production.”
The music her father composed for “West Side Story” is recognized and loved worldwide, as are his other masterpieces. In this year of the 90th anniversary of his birth, orchestras revisiting his repertoire include Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, whose performances last month of his “MASS” locally and in New York received rave reviews.
Growing up surrounded by music and the theater (her mother was actress Felicia Montealegre), Jamie Bernstein and her siblings took their remarkable family for granted.
“We didn’t realize how well-known and popular our father was until we saw an episode of ‘The Flintstones’ in which Fred and Wilma attend a concert he conducts at Hollyrock Bowl,” she said.
Bernstein, a writer and concert narrator, devotes her life to sharing great music with others, sometimes sedate adult audiences, more often youngsters. She models her presentations after her father’s famous Young People’s Concerts.
“It’s such a fun thing giving the kids concerts and seeing them become inspired,” she said. “At a recent presentation with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the kids were excited about the music and screaming so loudly when it ended, I felt like a rock star.
“It’s good my father’s music is being played so much now. The further we get from the 20th century, the better it sounds. I hope audiences get the sense that he was bursting with love for music and wanted it to make the greatest impact possible on society.”
If you go
“West Side Story”
Where: National Theatre
When: Opens Monday, runs through Jan. 17
Info: $46.59 to $96.50, limited premium seats at $151.50 and $176.50; 800-447-7400; telecharge.com
