WEST SIDE STORY

San Francisco Symphony

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Based on a Conception of Jerome Robbins

Book by ARTHUR LAURENTS

Music by LEONARD BERNSTEIN
Lyrics by STEPHEN SONDHEIM
Entire Original Production
Directed and Choreographed by
JEROME ROBBINS

This recording of West Side Story is made possible by the Koret Foundation.
The San Francisco Symphony would also like to thank the following for making this recording possible:
Jamie Bernstein, Alexander Bernstein, Nina Bernstein Simmons, the Leonard Bernstein Office
(Paul H. Epstein, Marie Carter, Garth Edwin Sunderland, and Craig Urquhart), Stephen Sondheim,
the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation, Inc. and David Saint, and
The Robbins Rights Trust (Allen Greenberg and Chris Pennington).
All songs published by Leonard Bernstein Music Publishing Co. LLC./Chappell & Co.
All rights administered by Universal Polygram International Publishing, Inc. (ASCAP)

WEST SIDE STORY

Table of Contents
Cast & Credits

Track Listing

A Conversation with Michael Tilson Thomas

10

Historical Notes

19

Bernsteins West Side Story Timeline

31

Synopsis 46
Lyrics 52
Biographies 76
In Rehearsal

92

WEST SIDE STORY

San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
CAST

Maria Alexandra Silber

Tony Cheyenne Jackson

Anita Jessica Vosk

Riff Kevin Vortmann

Rosalia Juliana Hansen

Francisca

Cassie Simone
Action Justin Keyes
Baby John Chris Meissner
A-rab Louis Pardo
Officer Krupke Michael Taylor

Consuelo Louise Marie Cornillez

Diesel Zachary Ford
Big Deal/Snowboy David Michael Laffey
Bernardo Kelly Markgraf

and Julia Bullock as A Girl

Jets, Sharks, Girls Members of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus

Ragnar Bohlin, director

Producer: Jack Vad

Casting by Binder Casting

Engineering Support: Roni Jules, Gus Pollek,

Jay Binder, CSA

Jack Bowdan, CSA, Mark Brandon, CSA
Jason Styres
Additional Casting: Michael Donovan, CSA
Richie Ferris, assistant

and Jonathon Stevens

Wireless Design: Denise Woodward
Post Production/Surround Engineering:

Jonathon Stevens
Design: Alan Trugman
Photos: Ricardo Hernandez (cover),
Stefan Cohen (cast and production).

16. Tonight (Riff, Bernardo, Anita,

DISC 1 - Act 1
1. Prologue
3:57
2. Jet Song (Riff, Jets)
3:37
3. Somethings Coming (Tony)
2:57

The Dance at the Gym
4. Blues
2:16
5. Promenade
0:27
6. Mambo
2:27
0:47
7. Cha-Cha
8. Meeting Scene (Tony, Maria)
1:51
0:58
9. Jump
10. Maria (Tony)
2:47
11. Balcony Scene, Tonight

(Tony, Maria)
1:40
12. Only You (Tony, Maria) 6:01
13. America
(Anita, Rosalia, Shark Girls)
5:19
14. Cool (Riff, Jets)
4:25
15. One Hand, One Heart

(Tony, Maria)
5:34

3:51
3:09

DISC 2 - Act 2
1. I Feel Pretty (Maria, Francisca,
4:14

Rosalia, Consuelo)

Ballet Sequence
2. Allegro agitato
0:41
3. Lo stesso tempo (Tony, Maria) 0:35
4. Adagio
0:34
5. Scherzo
1:29
6. Somewhere (A Girl) 2:27
7. Procession & Nightmare

(Entire Company) 2:17
8. Adagio
1:29
9 Gee, Officer Krupke (Jets)
5:00
10. A Boy Like That (Anita, Maria)
2:30
11. I Have a Love (Maria, Anita)
3:30
12. Change of Scene
0:29
13. Jukebox, Taunting Scene
2:26
14. Finale (Maria, Tony)
2:49

This recording is part of the SFS Media catalogue of recordings, available at [Link].

Tony, Maria, Sharks, Jets)

17. The Rumble

Michael Tilson Thomas has been connected to the Bernstein family

for so long that I can barely remember a time without him. Over
the years, it came to feel as if Michael had absorbed much of our
collective DNA; he knew our jokes, our food, our stories.
So when Michael proposed recording West Side Story in a live
concert performance, the project seemed like a natural extension
of his longtime relationship with us all. The show has had such
a ubiquitous presence in our lives that my brother, sister, and I
sometimes feel as if it were our fourth sibling.
Mind you, West Side Story does not lend itself to a non-staged concert performance.
Jerome Robbinss iconic choreography is such a crucial part of the workas are Arthur
Laurentss terse propulsive book, and Stephen Sondheims brilliant lyrics. To make matters
more complicated, there is essentially no music in the last twenty minutes of the show.
But Michael and the San Francisco Symphony found a satisfying way to present the
concert. The audience (myself included) was thoroughly absorbed in the musicthat
astonishing music that, even in the absence of dancing and dialogue, conveys the full
emotional spectrum of the storyfrom the restless, dangerous rhythms of Cool, to the
spirited sass of America, to the intimate longings for a better world in Somewhere.
Now, this unique performance is here on this album, available to one and all. Its a joy
to hear my fathers score performed with a full orchestra at the peak of its powers and at the
helm, a conductor who knows this compositionas well as its composerthe way he knows
his own heart.

I hadnt heard the score of West Side Story performed live for more
than fifty yearsthe last time being when I was on the Goldwyn
Studios soundstage to pre-record my numbers for the movie. As I
headed into Davies Symphony Hall I was filled with excitement
and anticipationI would get to hear the first-ever live concert
performance of the original Broadway score.
From the first note I moved to the edge of my seat, with every
nerve ending prepared to receive this astonishing musical assault of
notes, chords, and complex rhythms, held together by the sinew of one mans genius. For me,
the fiery passion, wit, yearning, dissonance, intensity, joy, and sharp angles of this work-forthe-ages were all present and fresh again. Thank you Maestro Michael Tilson Thomas, the
San Francisco Symphony, and a superb ensemble.

Rita Moreno

Jamie Bernstein
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Shaping West Side Story

A Conversation with Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas grew up in a theatrical family. His grandparents were founders of New
Yorks Yiddish theater at the turn of the twentieth century. His father, a Hollywood film-industry
alchemist who helped screen writers turn scripts into gold, was a self-taught composer-pianist
who introduced his son to music. Movie and theater people, musicians, and other artists filled
the Thomas home during MTTs childhood. With such a background, and given the musician
he became and the close working relationship he cemented with Leonard Bernstein, it is easy
to assume that West Side Story was waiting for him to conduct. The tale is not that simple, as
Michael Tilson Thomas recounts here. West Side Story as heard in this recording was captured
live, in concert, at San Francisco Symphony performances in June and July 2013the first
concert performances of the complete Broadway score. In this conversation with Larry Rothe,
who for many years was editor of the San Francisco Symphonys program book, Michael Tilson
Thomas reflects on the music and the show. For context: West Side Story opened on Broadway in
the fall of 1957. The film directed by Robert Wise premiered in 1961. Also introduced in 1961
was a suite of music from the show, the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. Leonard
Bernstein himself did not conduct a performance of West Side Story until 1984, when he
recorded it with a cast of operatically trained singers.

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West Side Story premiered when you were a teenager. When did you first
encounter the show?

For my fourteenth birthday, showbiz friends of my parents gave me the original cast album
of West Side Story. But at that point my musical tastes had shifted from those of my parents
circle. I actually exchanged the album at my local record store for Hans Rosbauds recording
of the Berg Three Pieces for Orchestra. But tunes from West Side Story were popular at the
time, and I became aware of them.
When did that awareness turn into something deeper?

The summer before I started my second year in college, I moved into an apartment. It
was a big sprawling place and we had to paint it. One of my roommates had the West Side
Story album and played it while we painted. By the time we finished the job,
West Side Story had become a part of my life.
My first experience seeing West Side Story was the film. That was in Jerusalem, at a
screening that was a little like the Rocky Horror Picture Show. People in the audience were
enacting the piece. A Jets section and a Sharks section occupied opposite sides of the
auditorium. Im not sure whether they were different groups of Israelis, or Israelis and
Palestinians. But objects were being thrown from one side of the auditorium to the other,
and you had to duck.
And then I got to know the incredible Symphonic Dances, the brilliant synthesis of the
show that Bernstein put together with Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal. Performing those dances
and other numbers from the show is how I began to develop my knowledge of the score.
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And the San Francisco concerts: Was this the first time you had conducted a
complete performance of West Side Story?

Yes. Of course no one has conducted a complete performance except someone who did a
run of the show. To perform music from West Side Story, you must follow protocols that
determine various combinations of numbers you are allowed to do, but not a complete
running order of the show. What makes this project unique is that those who hold creative
rights to West Side Story gave us permission to do the complete show and to make this
recording.
The running order I followed was basically the one that Bernstein had done in his own
1984 recording. From a purists point of view, we havent included every note. For example,
theres bow music and change-of-scene musicmusic that repeats what has already been
heard, for the sake of things being accomplished on the stage. We havent included that. But
what we offer here is the whole dramatic picture of the piece.
In his 1984 recording, Bernstein used an ensemble about the size of a Broadway
pit orchestra. The orchestration in the movie was for a larger group of players.
Bernstein believed the film orchestration overblown.

Johnny Green, the musical director of the film, re-orchestrated and changed the sequences
of things. His mission was to create the sound of a luscious film score, and he knew exactly
how to do that.
What you hear in the San Francisco recording is basically the Broadway orchestration,
but beefed up a bit, using double the number of string players. Also, the show was originally
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conceived with doublers in mind. That is to say, wind players who played many more than
one instrument. The same player might play piccolo, clarinet, saxophone. We divided those
parts, so we used all the San Francisco Symphonys wonderful specialist players on their own
instruments.
What is the challenge of playing a work like West Side Story to an orchestra of
classically trained musicians?

If you are an American orchestral musician, you are expected to have a great understanding
ofand flair forperforming music based on any number of different American popular
styles, whether jazz or swing or blues or folk or Broadway. I always kid my Viennese
colleagues. I tell them, You Viennese have made a religion out of one dancethe waltz,
and maybe the polka. But we Americans are expected to play everything! We play funk and
bebop, swing, Broadway, music hall, and ragtime. Its just what we do.
The orchestra is such a prime player in West Side Story. It has one of the major roles
perhaps the largest role in the drama. And we have so many outstanding soloists and
musicians in the San Francisco Symphony who understand the style of this music. Thats
one of the reasons I really looked forward to making this recording.
Talk a little about that Bernstein operatic recording of West Side Story. What was
he after in that?

One of the tricky things about West Side Story, and about much of Bernsteins music, is
that its written not really for pop singers and not really for jazz singers, although people
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in both those categories have made much of the tunes and the repertoire. Although the
score makes operatic demands on the singers in many cases, its not really for opera singers
per se. It can go in that direction; and of course, given Bernsteins friendships with great
opera singerssingers like Montserrat Caball and Christa Ludwighe performed his
music with them. Deutsche Grammophon, which recorded Bernsteins 1984 performance,
wanted a definitive recording. I think the cast for that album had something to do with
Bernsteins desires, and also something to do with the agenda of the recording companya
little bit of both.
And what were you after in the version you conducted in San Francisco?

I wanted to go with people who were singing actors. Thats really who West Side Story
was written for. And I wanted to take it back in that direction with artists who sounded
idiomatic. I wanted something you would recognize as part of a Broadway music theater
production.
West Side Storys enduring quality seems to lie in the great tunes, and also in the
serious drama those tunes are meant to convey. But its a very different kind of
show from the Broadway musicals of 1957different from, say,The Music Man,
which also premiered that year.

The creative team was looking for something that had a great universal theme. This is
certainly not the first time such a thing was done. West Side Story is in the tradition of shows
like Show Boat, or Porgy and Bess, or South Pacificother pieces that have dealt with socially
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relevant, controversial issues. I like to think this is a tradition that goes back to the Yiddish
theater shows, which were filled with laughs but which often also touched on social and
political questions. West Side Story isnt parody, like the Gershwins Of Thee I Sing or Let Em
Eat Cake, which take on serious matters, but in a slapstick way. West Side Story proceeds
as an operatic piece would proceed. So it is a hybrid, and this plays into the question of
whos going to sing it. Theres no question that Bernstein meant West Side Story to seem
spontaneous. His whole approach to music is that he wanted things to seem as though they
werent written down; they just happened at that moment. And theres something of that in
this pieceas well as intricacies, for example in the way musical motifs are used.
But you mentioned The Music Man. In a way that show also treats serious social issues,
such as provincialism and the non-acceptance of the outsider by a hide-bound society. The
Music Man is brilliantly accomplished, but its a much more traditional show.
West Side Story did something different. It includes much that is odd, such as the quiet,
very curious endings at the end of Act I and the end of Act II, all the strange ups and starts,
and all the abstract gestures. We know so much about the Jets. They are totally in focus, and
we know all the members. In the Sharks, we know only Bernardo. We have no idea who the
other Sharks are. A lot of things are dramatically unequal.
But musically, the show holds together so well. All the shows creatorsBernstein,
Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheimare trying to be streetwise hipsters
in this piece. But of course none of them were anything remotely close to that. These are
very highly specialized, trained, sophisticated guys. West Side Story is very different from
another Bernstein show, On the Town. All the people involved in On the Town came from
the world it depicted. West Side Storys team approached their subject in a more abstract way.

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Somehow, their distance helped them achieve a more universal point of view.

I think the things that work best in West Side Story are the punky things, the irreverent,
sez you kind of stuff. Thats a quality that all these guys did understand from within their
own traditions. But distancing also helps create a simplicity. You can hear that songs like
Tonight or Maria are musical relatives of a song like Lucky to be Me from On the
Town. But Tonight and Maria are much simpler. Thats one thing about West Side Storys
appeal: that songs like Maria or America are very simple in their form and the repetition
of their musical shapes. If you compare these to Some Other Time or I Can Cook Too,
those songs in On the Town are much more complicated in their phrase structure and
offbeat, fragmented procedure.
And the simplicity of songs like Tonight or Maria helps them sink into a
listeners head.

Sure. But you have to remember that On the Town was this amazing burst of energy. And
then came Candide, which was an attempt to write a more classical, operatic type of piece.
West Side Story comes off the tail of that. Even some of the music originally planned for
Candide winds up in West Side Story. Its all part of the process.
Joan Peyser, in her biography of Bernstein, makes much of his lifting from other
composers, and in particular she focuses on Somewhere, which she says was
inspired by a phrase of the slow movement of Beethovens Emperor Concerto.

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Bernstein used to say, Everybody steals, but the important thing is to steal classy. There are
many references and borrowings in the show, which he was the first to acknowledge. They
begin with the allegedly shofar-derived call that is the main motif of the whole piece. For
me, the most telling references are at the very end. The Someday, Somewhere motif is the
same as the music that precedes the Glorification of the Chosen One in Stravinskys Rite
of Spring. It is superimposed on the last bars of Richard Strausss Also sprach Zarathustra
the high major chords with the ominous out of the key base notes below. Its amazing
that Bernstein could take such incredibly well-known disparate musical ideas as these,
incorporate them so effectively, and make of them a message uniquely his own.
Bernstein thought West Side Story might change the face of American musical
theater.

That didnt really happen. West Side Story is a stand-alone piece. Bernstein never wrote
anything like it again. And although others may have tried, nobody succeeded in doing
anything similar.
I think the wonderful thing for all of us involved in the San Francisco Symphonys West
Side Story project was to experience the shape of the entire piece and to discover how well it
works, musically, all on its own in a live performance.
Larry Rothe is author of Music for a City, Music for the World, a history of the San
Francisco Symphony, and co-author of the essay collection For the Love of Music.

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BERNSTEIN
West Side Story
Leonard Bernstein was born August 25, 1918, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and died October
14, 1990, in New York City. He composed the musical West Side Story principally from autumn
1955 through summer 1957, and it received its first performance (a pre-Broadway try-out)
on August 19, 1957, at the National Theatre in Washington, DC. It opened on Broadway on
September 26, 1957, at the Winter Garden Theater, with Max Goberman conducting. The book
is by Arthur Laurents and lyrics are by Stephen Sondheim. The orchestrations were realized by Sid
Ramin and Irving Kostal, in consultation with Bernstein.

1983 Robert Millardd

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As early as 1949, Leonard Bernstein and his friends Jerome Robbins (the choreographer)
and Arthur Laurents (the writer) had batted around the idea of creating a musical retelling of
Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet set amid the tensions of rival social groups in modern New York
City. The project took a long time to find its eventual form. An early version tentatively titled
East Side Story was going to focus on the doomed love affair between a Jewish girl and a Catholic
boy on New Yorks Lower East Side, their hopes dashed by differences of religion. The idea
simmered on the back burner for several years. In 1955, Laurents and Bernstein encountered
each other by chance at the Beverly Hills Hotel and started chewing through the idea yet again
while basking beside the swimming pool. According to Laurents: We realized the religious issue
had become extraneous. Juvenile delinquency had become the problem. We thought in terms
of the Mexicans in Los Angeles. Then it was just a step to the Puerto Ricans in New York. This
change of concept mandated a new title. In an uncensored moment, Laurents floated Gangway!
as a potential name. To my horror, he recalled, they took it so seriously, it was stenciled on the
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back of the scenery and stayed there even after reason prevailed. A better solution was practically
staring everyone in the face, of course. The collaborators decided that the action would center
logically on a ghetto on New Yorks Upper West Side, where a Polish-American boy falls in love
with a Puerto Rican girl, and the title West Side Story was born.
The piece itself would require rather more time. Everybody involved had very full calendars.
In 1956, much of Bernsteins energy went into the premiere of his operatic musical comedy
Candide. It opened on Broadway on December 1, received passionately mixed reviews,
and closed in a sea of red ink and frustration after 73 performances. It was also just then, in
November 1956, that Bernstein was selected to be joint principal conductor of the New York
Philharmonic. That appointment not only revivified a relationship that had been dormant
for the preceding five and a half yearshe had not conducted the ensemble in a subscription
concert since 1951but also placed him in a position to succeed Dimitri Mitropoulos as
the orchestras music director, an eventuality that would take place in September 1958. The
joint appointment would not begin officially for another year, but Bernstein needed to be reintroduced to the orchestras audience right away. Suddenly New York Philharmonic subscription
concerts packed his schedule, 21 of them in December 1956 and January 1957 alone. In April
1956, he signed an exclusive recording contract with Columbia, and five Bernstein-conducted
LPs were scheduled for release that fall. His lectures on the Omnibus television show were
growing ever more popular (the ABC network had just decided to pick up the series), and it was
announced that he would also be taking over the Philharmonics Young Peoples Concerts (on the
heels of which CBS acquired broadcast rights). He was already committed to conduct concerts
in South America and Israel later in 1956. Now a major, time-consuming new project had to be
squeezed into the schedule.

Even compared to the typical turmoil that surrounded the birth of Broadway shows, the
genesis of West Side Story was chaotic. Producers shunned it from the get-go, fearing that its tragic
tale would guarantee commercial failure. Finally Cheryl Crawford and Roger Stevens signed on
to produce the piece. Crawford ended up getting cold feet about what she termed a show full of
hatefulness and ugliness, and after she withdrew her support, Stevens gave the project a fighting
chance by providing a bridge loan before pulling out. The creative team hoped that Bernsteins
friends Betty Comden and Adolph Green would write the lyrics; but it turned out they were tied
up with a movie project, so there was another key position to be filled. Bernstein made a stab
at writing lyrics himself, but he was really not up to the task. Laurents had heard some songs by
a fledgling composer-lyricist named Stephen Sondheim, and he had especially liked the lyrics.
Sondheim was brought in for an audition at Bernsteins apartment and left feeling lukewarm
about getting involved. He discussed his misgivings with his mentor, Oscar Hammerstein II,
and, as Sondheim wrote in his book Finishing the Hat, it was he who persuaded me that if I
was offered the job, I should leap at it. The show has an interesting idea, he said, and here was
a chance to work with three of the most gifted and experienced men in music and theater.
When Lenny phoned a week later and invited me to join the crew, I duly leapt.
Apart from snagging the future pacesetter of American musical theater at the outset of his
career, this personnel decision proved useful in another way: Sondheim secured the interest of his
friend Harold Prince, who became involved as a producer (along with Princes producing partner
Robert Griffith). Then, to everyones amazement, Robbins announced at the eleventh hour that
he would rather spend his time directing the show than choreographing it, thereby jeopardizing
Princes participation. In the end, he was persuaded to stay on as choreographer as well as assume
the directors spot, and he was granted an unusually long rehearsal period as an inducement.

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 Some of Bernsteins composition of West Side Story overlapped with his work on Candide. On
the face of it, the two stage works would seem entirely dissimilar. Bernstein described Candide as
a Valentine to European music, and he peppered its score with allusions to the waltz, the gavotte,
bel canto warbling, Gilbert & Sullivan, and Gounods Faust. West Side Story, with its highly
spiced and syncopated Latin undercurrents, was a paean to urban grittiness. Notwithstanding the
disparity, music flowed in both directions between the two scores: the duet O Happy We in
Candide started life as a duet in West Side Story, while West Side Storys One Hand, One Heart
and Gee, Officer Krupke originated in Candide before finding their proper places.
Laurents recalled being struck by the distinctive quality of Bernsteins score from the very first
run-through he heard:
The thing that distinguishes American music theater music is its vitality and its complex
rhythms, the qualities to be found in Bernstein, and to me those qualities reach their
peak in West Side Story. It was the best theater music thats ever been written. He didnt
think. The music just poured out of him. He somehow knew how to take the vernacular
and raise it up, make music instead of a pastiche. He had that rare quality of being able
to feel each character; he was a musical dramatist.
Indeed, the dramatic choices in West Side Story are far from routine, even to a point where the
creative team had trouble agreeing on how to describe this work in which singing, acting, and
dancing all play integral, extended parts. Robbins viewed it as an American musical; Bernstein
considered it a tragic musical comedy. Theres no question that dance scenes, often sinister
and threatening, play a more dramatically vital role than was customary in American musicals,
though of course precedents were to be found in such dance-infused pieces as the 1936 On Your
Toes, by Rodgers and Hart, with its famous Slaughter on Tenth Avenue ballet, and the Rodgers
and Hammerstein musicals Oklahoma! (1943; Bernstein cited it as a specific influence) and

Carousel (1945), which included potent dance scenes that were essential to the narrative.
From a strictly musical point of view, West Side Story displays greater integration of material
than had previously characterized works destined for Broadway. It might be an exaggeration to
claim that the whole score is predicated on the interval of the tritonethe augmented fourth
(it can also be spelled as a diminished fifth)but as overstatements go, it would not be
severe. The two notes of this interval may overlap but they nonetheless define distinct harmonic
realmsa musical reflection, one might say, of Tony and Maria. Its harmonic instability
notwithstanding, the frequent recurrence of this interval helps unify this wide-ranging score. The
first two notes of Maria have served decades of ear-training students as a mnemonic device
for the tritone, but by the time that song is first heard, in Scene Four, the interval has already
been established as the works foundational sound. We hear it practically at the outset, in the
louche phrase that accompanies the entrance of the finger-snapping Jets, then again in the solotrombone gesture at the moment when Bernardo (of the rival Sharks) crosses their path, in the
first two notes of Cool, in the melodic contours of Somethings Coming ears attuned to
the tritone will hear it over and over in West Side Story.
Rhythmic syncopation and metric dissonance are also elemental to the score. When Youre
a Jet, for example, is composed almost throughout in 6/8 meter, and the bass line dutifully
emphasizes the first and fourth beats of each measure. Bernstein, however, writes a melody (sung
by Riff) that stresses the first, third, and fifth beat of the measure, yielding a constant syncopation
in which two-pulses-per-measure exists in nervous conflict with three-pulses-per-measure.
America, sung by Anita and her friends, is also famous for its mixed meters, here worked out
sequentially rather than simultaneously. It, too, maintains a meter marking of 6/8, but Bernstein
alternates measures of two pulses with measures of three pulses, achieving a buoyant sense of
energy and propulsion.

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 On August 19, 1957, West Side Story opened in a try-out run in Washington, D.C., and then
it continued through a shorter booking in Philadelphia. Even as it went through inevitable preBroadway adjustments (though fewer than many a show has had), Bernstein sensed its claim to
greatness. To his composer-friend David Diamond he wrote: The three weeks in Washington
were phenomenal sellouts, raving press and public. Now similar in Philly. It really does the heart
goodbecause this show is my baby, my tragic musical-comedy, whatever it is, and if it goes
in New York as well as it has on the road, we will have proved something very big indeed, and
maybe changed the face of American musical theater. Indeed it did go well in New York, its
initial Broadway run totaling 772 performancesjust short of two years. It then embarked on a
national tour and made its way back to New York in 1960 for another 253 performances, after
which it was released as a feature film in 1961.
Notwithstanding the shows resounding success in the theater, it was really the film that
made the work iconic in the American memory. Nevertheless, West Side Story did not even win
the Tony award for best musical in 1957, that honor instead going to Meredith Willsons The
Music Man, a fine show that looked more to Broadways past than to its future. Of the six Tony
categories for which West Side Story received nominations, it won only two: Robbins for Best
Choreography and Oliver Smith for Best Scenic Design. The 1961 film, in contrast, won Oscars
in ten of the eleven categories in which it was nominated.
Candide is famous as the Bernstein stage work that kept morphing through various versions,
never reaching a form that everyone considers definitive. Though its basic text is more of a fixed
quantity, West Side Story also holds a number of editorial challenges, principally involving its
orchestration. Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal carried out the shows original orchestration under the
composers supervision, scoring it for about thirty players. Some of their decisions were specific to
the available forces. For example, their original orchestration uses a string section that lacks violas.

The reason? Union rules governing the Winter Garden Theater, where the show played, required
that the members of the house orchestra be used in the performances, and Bernstein found the
theaters two viola players to be sub-par. Lets just do without them, he told his orchestrators,
because I couldnt stand listening to my show every night and hearing what those guys would
do to the viola parts. Ramin and Kostal re-orchestrated the work when it was turned into a
movie, increasing the forces to a full symphony orchestra, and Bernstein worried that the result
was overblown and unsubtle. In 1984, Bernstein retouched the score as he prepared to conduct
West Side Story for a Deutsche Grammophon studio recording. For this concert production,
however, taken from the San Francisco Symphonys live performances in June and July 2013,
conductor Michael Tilson Thomas reverted to the musical text of the original Broadway score.
The radioactive fallout from West Side Story must still be descending on Broadway this
morning, wrote Walter Kerr, critic of the Herald Tribune, in the wake of the opening in New
York, and one might say that his assumption remains true more than a half-century later. West
Side Story stands as an essential, influential chapter in the history of not just American musical
theater but, indeed, of American theater of any sort, and its engrossing tale of young love
struggling against a background of spectacularly choreographed gang warfare has found a place at
the core of Americans common culture.
James M. Keller

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25

James M. Keller, the long-time Program Annotator of the San Francisco Symphony and the
New York Philharmonic, has served as the New York Philharmonics Leonard Bernstein Scholarin-Residence and has published articles in the books Leonard Bernstein at Work (Amadeus) and
Leonard Bernstein: American Original (Harper Collins).

26

27

28

29

Bernsteins

WEST SIDE STORY

A Timeline

30

31

1949
January

Spring

Jerome Robbins approaches Leonard Bernstein with the concept of an updated classic: a version
of Romeo and Juliet set in the New York slums. He enlists Arthur Laurents as script writer.

Bernstein is pulled in
different directions as his
conducting career takes off,
and he puts the project aside
for a few years.

Bernsteins annotated copy of William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet. Boston: Ginn and Co.,
1940. Ed. by George Kittredge. Leonard Bernstein Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress.
Courtesy of The Leonard Bernstein Office, Inc.

32

Bernstein conducting the New York City Symphony, 1945.

Leonard Bernstein Collection, Music Division, Library of
Congress. Courtesy of The Leonard Bernstein Office, Inc.

33

1955

1957

Summer

Fall

Fall

Winter

The creators return to the project but rethink

the setting. Bernstein and Laurents read an
article in the Los Angeles Times about juvenile
delinquency and revise the concept.

Bernstein and Laurents take their gang idea to

Robbins, who loves it.

Stephen Sondheim is engaged to write

the lyrics.

Work proceeds apace, as Bernstein commits

himself to Romeo.

It is ironic that a national

misfortune should benefit
a project for the theatre,
but such was the case. The
interval of time had brought
a subject that demanded
dramatization, a subject
I realized would intensify
the background of the play:
todays confused adolescents
forming gangs to give them
a sense of belonging to
something; two juvenile gangs
for both your houses.
Arthur Laurents

I had heard the highly

talented work of an
unproduced but very
productive young man
named Stephen Sondheim.
Very soon, he was doubletalking style with as
much confusion as the rest
of us.
Arthur Laurents

Leonard Bernstein in 1955. New York World-Telegram

and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection, Library
of Congress

Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times

34

35

1957
April

May

June

July

Producer Cheryl Crawford withdraws from

the project; Harold Prince and Robert
GRiffith agree to produce the show, tentatively
titled Gangway!.

Casting begins.

Washington, DC News, June 29, 1957.

Rehearsals begin. Bernstein is thrilled with the

sound of the amateur singers.

The News
The title of the new Leonard
Bernstein musical play, due
at the National for three
weeks starting August 19,
has been finally nailed
down. Its West Side Story.

Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents, Harold

Prince, Robert Griffith (seated), Leonard
Bernstein, and Jerome Robbins on the set of
West Side Story. Friedman-Abeles
photographer. The New York Public Library

Bernstein at rehearsal for West Side Story.

Carol Lawrence (who played Maria) is at his
left, with lyricist Stephen Sondheim playing
the piano, 1957. Friedman-Abeles photographer.
The New York Public Library.

Bernsteins audition notes Leonard Bernstein

Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress (6)
By permission of The Leonard Bernstein Office, Inc.

36

37

1957
August

August 23

Letter to Felicia

Bernstein signs a contract with the New York Philharmonic. He wrote to his wife Felicia on
August 3: I signed the Philharmonic contract. We ran through [West Side Story] for the
first time, & the problems are many, varied, overwhelming; but weve got a show there, & just
possibly a great one.

Well, look-a me. Back to the nations

capitol, & right on the verge. This is
Thurs. We open Mon. Everyones coming,
my dear, even Nixon and 35 admirals.
Senators abounding, & big Washingtonhostessy type party afterwards in
Lennuhtts [a play on the pronunciation
of Leonards] honor. See what you miss
by going away. Then next Sunday, which
is my birthday, there is the Jewish version
a big party for me, but admission is
one Israel bond. All helps the show. We
have a 75 thou. advance, & the town is
buzzing. Not bad. I have high hopes. I
also have a new pen, as you can see, which
I adore, because it writes every time, and
without a ball-point.
If I sound punchy, its because I am.

Leonard Bernstein Collection, Music Division,

Library of Congress. By permission of The
Leonard Bernstein Office, Inc.

Friedman-Abeles photographer. The New York Public Library

38

39

1957
August 20
Washington D.C.

August

The first performance at the National Theater in Washington D.C. is a success.

Leonard Bernstein (with Carol Lawrence in background) instructing cast

during rehearsal for West Side Story. Friedman-Abeles photographer.
The New York Public Library

40

Letter to Felicia

Its all too exciting. I never dreamed it

could be like thisreviews such as one
would write for oneselfthe whole town
up and doing about the showthose
delicious long lines at the box office
morale highdignitaries every nightthe
Senate practically in totopartieshot
newspapersall the atmosphere of a midseason openinggalaemeralds, fursthe
works. Only thing missingyou. How
I longed to have you there & share the
excitement! Of couse, as they say, its only
Washington, not New Yorkdont count
chickens. But it sure looks like a smash, &
all our experiments seem to have worked.
The book works, the tragedy works, the
ballets shine, the music pulses and soars,
and there is at least one history-making
set. Its all too good to be true.

Leonard Bernstein Collection, Music Division,

Library of Congress. By permission of The
Leonard Bernstein Office, Inc.

41

1961

1957
September

October

West Side Story opens at the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway, with Max Goberman
conducting. Reviews are mixed but all agree the work makes an impact.

Columbia Releases the original cast recording.

MGM releases a film version of West Side

Story, starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer,
Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, and George
Chakiris. The score was re-orchestrated by Sid
Ramin and Irwin Kostal for large orchestra.

A profoundly moving show that is as ugly as the city jungles and also
pathetic, tender, and forgiving.
Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times

Outside the Winter Garden Theater after the Broadway Opening.

Photographer unknown. Leonard Bernstein Collection, Music Division,
Library of Congress. By permission of the Leonard Bernstein Office, Inc.

42

Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment.

Courtesy of MGM Media Licensing

43

1961

1984

Leonard Bernstein makes an orchestral

suite of music from the show:
Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.
As he explained in a Young Peoples
Concert: I know for sure that my
own music is full of Latin American
elements, especially my music for West
Side Story. Were going to play you
some of the dances from that show, in a
special new orchestration for symphony
orchestra, and this is in response to
many requests you young people have
made for years now to hear this music.

Bernstein records the work with opera stars Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carerras as Maria
and Tony.

Young Peoples Concert script for Symphonic Dances.

Leonard Bernstein Collection, Music Division, Library
of Congress. By permission of The Leonard Bernstein
Office, Inc.

44

Courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft

45

Synopsis
Act One

WEST SIDE STORY

Synopsis

46

The instrumental Prologue introduces the rival gangs who roam a neighborhood of New
Yorks Upper West Side in the 1950s. First enter the Jets, American-born boys of Polish
ancestry headed by Riff. They encounter Bernardo, leader of the opposing Sharks, a
group of Puerto Rican heritage. Members of both groups congregate on a late-summer
afternoon and hostility builds until they are interrupted by police officer Krupke.
The Jets extol their gang and Riff vows to challenge Bernardo to fight at a dance
that will be held that evening (Jet Song). He asks his friend and Jets co-founder Tony
to back him up. Tony consents, although reluctantly since he has largely extricated
himself from the gang, is holding down a job at Docs drugstore, and senses that better
things lie ahead (Somethings Coming).
At the dance (Dance at the Gym), the two gangs square off when Bernardo enters
with his sister Maria, Anita (Bernardos girlfriend, recently arrived from Puerto Rico),
and Chino (whom Bernardo expects his sister will marry). The music moves from
a Blues to a Promenade, then to a riotous Mambo (in the midst of which Tony and
Maria see one another) and a Cha-Cha. Instantly enamored, Tony and Maria strike
up a conversation (Meeting Scene) as the dance continues (Promenade and Jump); but
Bernardo separates them angrily.
Tony woos Maria as she looks out from the window of her apartment building
(Maria). She steps onto the fire escape to respond, and they promise to love each other
eternally (Balcony Scene: Tonight). While this is happening, Anita and her friends gather

47

on a nearby rooftop, where they voice their opinions of the comparative merits of
life in the United States and in Puerto Rico (America), escalating into a high-spirited
Tempo di Huapango (a Latin American folk dance). As midnight arrives, the Jets and
the Sharks come close to combat but the Jets keep their tempers and weapons in check
for the moment (Cool).
The following afternoon, Tony visits Maria at the bridal shop where she works with
Anita, who discreetly leaves the couple alone. He acquiesces to Marias plea that he
thwart the impending gang fight, and they imagine their eventual wedding (One Hand,
One Heart).
Tony and Maria, Anita, and the gang members give voice to their conflicting
emotions (Tonight Ensemble), and, beneath a highway overpass, the gangs enmity
escalates into The Rumble. In the fight, Bernardo kills Riff; Tony takes a knife from
Riffs hand and kills Bernardo. Everyone disperses as the police arrive and the clock
tolls nine.

48

Act Two
Minutes later, Maria, surrounded by her friends, is preparing for her date with Tony (I
Feel Pretty). Chino bursts in and explains what has happened in the street fight. Tony
follows. Maria begs him to stay with her rather than surrender himself to the police,
and they dream of a life away from the urban violence that is consuming them (Ballet
Sequence; Somewhere; Procession and Nightmare).
The Jets mock Officer Krupke, who arrives in the wake of the gang battle (Gee,
Officer Krupke). Word arrives that the Sharks have learned about the romance between
Tony and Maria, and that they are coming to kill Tony. The Jets head off to find Tony.
As grief-stricken Anita arrives at Marias apartment, Tony escapes through the
window after arranging for Maria to meet him shortly at Docs drugstore so they can
flee together. Anita is anguished that Maria remains committed to Tony, whom she
now views as the murderer of her brother (A Boy Like That); but she comes to accept
that the power of love must motivate Maria and Tony (I Have a Love).
Anita heads to Docs drugstore to warn Tony that the Sharks are circling to kill
him. The Jets, however, assault her and prevent her from seeing Tony (Taunting Scene).
Infuriated, she falsely informs them (via Doc) that Maria has been killed by Chino.
Tony sets out to find Chino, but he encounters Maria, who is arriving at the drugstore
just as they had planned. As the lovers rush toward each other, Chino appears and
shoots Tony from behind. Tony dies in Marias arms (Finale) and the Jets and Sharks
together carry his body offstage, joining in this act of possible reconciliation.

49

50

51

ACT ONE
1. PROLOGUE
2. JET SONG

Riff

Riff

Right! Hes always come through for us and he

will now.

Against the Sharks we need every man we got.

When youre a Jet,

Youre a Jet all the way
From your first cigarette
To your last dyin day.

Action

Tony dont belong any more.

Riff

Cut it, Action boy. I and Tony started the Jets.

When youre a Jet,

If the spit hits the fan,
You got brothers around,
Youre a family man!

Action

Well, he acts like he dont wanna belong.

Baby John

Youre never alone,

Youre never disconnected!
Youre home with your own:
When companys expected,
Youre well protected

Who wouldnt wanna belong to the Jets!

Action

Tony aint been with us for over a month.

Snowboy

WEST SIDE STORY

Lyrics

What about the day we clobbered the

Emeralds?

Then you are set

With a capital J,
Which youll never forget
Till they cart you away.
When youre a Jet,
You stay a Jet!

A-rab

Which we couldnt have done without Tony.

Baby John

He saved my ever-lovin neck!

52

I know Tony like I know me.

53

I guarantee you can count him in.

Riff

Hey. Cool. Easy. Sweet.

Meet me and Tony at ten. And walk tall!

Action

In, out, lets get crackin.

A-rab

A-rab

We always walk tall!

Where you gonna find Bernardo?

Baby John

Riff

Were Jets!

At the dance tonight at the gym.

Action

Big Deal

The greatest!

But the gyms neutral territory.

Action and Baby John

Riff

When youre a Jet,

Youre the top cat in town,
Youre the gold medal kid
With the heavyweight crown!

Im gonna make nice there! Im only gonna

challenge him.
A-rab

Great, Daddy-O!

A-rab, Action, Big Deal

When youre a Jet,

Youre the swinginest thing:
Little boy, youre a man;
Little man, youre a king!

Riff

So everybody dress up sweet and sharp.

ALL

Oh, when the Jets fall in at the cornball dance,

Well be the sweetest dressin gang in pants!
And when the chicks dig us in our Jet black
ties,
Theyre gonna flip, gonna flop, gonna drop
like flies!

All

Like a bat out of hell.

Someone gets in our way,
Someone dont feel so well!
Here come the Jets:
Little world, step aside!
Better go underground,
Better run, better hide!

3. SOMETHINGS COMING
Tony

Could be!
Who knows?
Theres something due any day;
I will know right away,
Soon as it shows.
It may come cannonballing down through
the sky,
Gleam in its eye,
Bright as a rose!

Were drawin the line,

So keep your noses hidden!
Were hangin a sign,
Says Visitors forbidden
And we aint kiddin!

Who knows?
Its only just out of reach,
Down the block, on a beach,
Under a tree.
I got a feeling theres a miracle due,
Gonna come true,
Coming to me!

Here come the Jets,

Yeah! And were gonna beat
Evry last buggin gang
On the whole buggin street!
On the whole!
Ever!
Mother!
Lovin!
Street!
Yeah!

Could it be? Yes, it could.

Somethings coming, something good,
If I can wait!
Somethings coming, I dont know what it is,
But it is
Gonna be great!

The Jets are in gear,

Our cylinders are clickin!
The Sharksll steer clear
Cause evry Puerto Ricans a lousy chicken!
Here come the Jets
54

With a click, with a shock,

Phonell jingle, doorll knock,
55

Open the latch!

Somethings coming, dont know when,
but its soon;
Catch the moon,
One-handed catch!

8. THE DANCE AT THE GYM /

MEETING SCENE
Tony

Around the corner,

Or whistling down the river,
Come on, deliver
To me!
Will it be? Yes, it will.
Maybe just by holding still,
Itll be there!

Tony

10. MARIA

Maria

Tony

Tony

Or that weve met before?

Maria

I know we have not.

Tony

I felt, I knew something never before was going

to happen, had to happen. But this is
Maria

My hands are so cold. Yours, too. So warm.

Tony

Yours, too.
Maria

But of course. They are the same.

Tony

Its so much to believe. Youre not joking me?

56

11. BALCONY SCENE

I have not yet learned how to joke that way. I

think now I never will.

Youre not thinking Im someone else?

I know you are not.

Come on, something, come on in,

dont be shy,
Meet a guy,
Pull up a chair!
The air is humming,
And something great is coming!
Who knows?
Its only just out of reach,
Down the block, on a beach,
Maybe tonight . . .

Maria

Maria, Maria
Maria

Ssh!

Maria
The most beautiful sound I ever heard:
Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria
All the beautiful sounds of the world in a
single word..
Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria
Maria!
Ive just met a girl named Maria,
And suddenly that name
Will never be the same
To me.
Maria!
Ive just kissed a girl named Maria,
And suddenly Ive found
How wonderful a sound
Can be!
Maria!
Say it loud and theres music playing,
Say it soft and its almost like praying.
Maria,
Ill never stop saying Maria!
The most beautiful sound I ever heard.
Maria.

Tony

Maria!
Maria

Quiet!
Tony

Come down.
Maria

No.
Tony

Maria
Maria

Please, if Bernardo knew

Tony

Hes at the dance. Come down.

Maria

He will soon bring Anita home.

57

Tony

Tony

Just for a minute.

To me, you are all the

12. ONLY YOU

Only you,
Youre the only thing Ill see forever.
In my eyes,
In my words and in everything I do,
Nothing else but you, Ever!

Mans voice [offstage]

A minute is not enough.

Maruca!

Tony

Maria

For an hour, then.

Si, ya vengo, Papa.

Maria

Tony

I cannot.

Maruca?

Tony

Maria

And theres nothing for me but Maria,

Evry sight that I see is Maria.

For ever!

His pet name for me.

Maria

Maria

Tony

Tony, Tony

Ssh!

I like him. He will like me.

Tony

Tony

Maria

Then Im coming up.

No. He is like Bernardo: afraid. Imagine being

afraid of you!

Mans voice [offstage]

Tony

You see?

Maria

Momentito, Papa
It is dangerous.

Maria

Tony

Tony

Im not one of them.

See only me.

I see you.

Maria

You are; but to me, you are not. Just as I am

one of them
58

Today, all day I had the feeling

A miracle would happen,
I know now I was right.

Maria

Maria

Maria!

Both

Tony

For here you are,

And what was just a world is a star,
Tonight!

Tony

Both

Tonight, tonight,
The world is full of light,
With suns and moons all over the place.
Tonight, tonight,
The world is wild and bright,
Going mad, shooting sparks into space.
Today the world was just an address,
A place for me to live in,
No better than all right,
But here you are,
And what was just a world is a star

Always you,
Evry thought Ill ever know,
Evry where I go,
Youll be, you and me!
Maria

All the world is only you and me!

Tonight, tonight,
It all began tonight,
I saw you and the world went away.
Tonight, tonight,
Theres only you tonight,
What you are, what you do,
What you say.

Tonight!
Mans voice [offstage]

Maruca!
Maria

Wait for me.

59

Tony

Tony

Both

Tonight, Tonight,
It all began tonight,
I saw you and the world went away.

At sundown.

Goodnight, goodnight,
Sleep well and when you dream,
Dream of me, Tonight.

Maria

Yes. Good night

Maria

Evrything free in America

For a small fee in America!
Rosalia

I like the city of San Juan.

Anita

Tony

I cannot stay. Go quickly!

Tony

Im not afraid.
Maria

Good night.

13. AMERICA

I know a boat you can get on.

Maria

Rosalia

Rosalia

Tony!

Puerto Rico,
You lovely island . . .
Island of tropical breezes.
Always the pineapples growing,
Always the coffee blossoms blowing . . .

Tony

They are strict with me. Please.

Ssh!

Tony

Maria

I love you.

Come to the back door.

Maria

Tony

Yes, yes, hurry. Go! Buenas noches.

Si.

Tony

Maria

Buenas noches.

Tony? What does Tony stand for?

Maria

Tony

Wait! When will I see you?

Anton.

Tony

Maria

Tomorrow.

Te adoro, Anton.

Maria

Tony

I work at the bridal shop. Come there.

Te adoro, Maria.

60

Hundreds of flowers in full bloom.

Anita

Hundreds of people in each room!

All

Automobile in America,
Chromium steel in America,
Wire-spoke wheel in America,
Very Big Deal in America!

Anita

Puerto Rico
You ugly island
Island of tropic diseases.
Always the hurricanes blowing,
Always the population growing
And the money owing,
And the babies crying,
And the bullets flying.
I like the island Manhattan.
Smoke on your pipe and put that in!

Rosalia

Ill drive a Buick through San Juan.

Anita

If theres a road you can drive on.

Rosalia

Ill give my cousins a free ride.

Anita

All

How you get all of them inside?

I like to be in America!
O.K. by me in America!
61

15. ONE HAND, ONE HEART

With this ring, I thee wed.

Tony

Maria

I, Anton, take thee, Maria

With this ring, I thee wed.

Riff

Maria

Tony

Boy, boy, crazy boy,

Get cool, boy!
Got a rocket in your pocket,
Keep coolly cool, boy!
Dont get hot,
Cause man, you got
Some high times ahead.
Take it slow and Daddy-O,
You can live it up and die in bed!

I, Maria, take thee, Anton

Make of our hands one hand,

Make of our hearts one heart,
Make of our vows one last vow:
Only death will part us now.

All

Anita

Immigrant goes to America,

Many hellos in America;
Nobody knows in America
Puerto Ricos in America!

Everyone there will have moved here!

14. COOL

Rosalia

Ill bring a T.V. to San Juan.

Anita

If there a current to turn on!

Rosalia

Ill give them new washing machine.

Anita

What have they got there to keep clean?

Boy, boy, crazy boy!

Stay loose, boy!
Breeze it, buzz it, easy does it.
Turn off the juice, boy!
Go man, go,
But not like a yo-yo schoolboy.
Just play it cool, boy,
Real cool!

All

I like the shores of America!

Comfort is yours in America!
Knobs on the doors in America,
Wall-to-wall floors in America!
Rosalia

When I will go back to San Juan.

Anita

When you will shut up and get gone?

Tony

For richer, for poorer

Maria

Maria

In sickness and in health

Tony

Make of our lives one life,

Day after day, one life.

To love and to honor

Both

Now it begins, now we start

One hand, one heart;
Even death wont part us now.

Maria

To hold and to keep

Tony

Make of our lives one life,

Day after day, one life.
Now it begins, now we start
One hand, one heart,
Even death wont part us now.

From each sun to each moon

Maria

From tomorrow to tomorrow

Tony

Jets

From now to forever

Cool, Go, Crazy!

Maria

Till death do us part.

Rosalia

Tony

Everyone there will give big cheer!

62

63

16. TONIGHT

Bernardo and Sharks

Tonight there will be no morning star.

Tonight, tonight, Ill see my love tonight.
And for us, stars will stop where they are.
Today
The minutes seem like hours,
The hours go so slowly,
And still the sky is light . . .
Oh moon, grow bright,
And make this endless day endless night!

Well, they began it!

Riff

All

Were gonna rock it tonight,

Were gonna jazz it up and have us a ball!
Theyre gonna get it tonight;
The more they turn it on the harder theyll fall!

Riff

The Jets are gonna have their day

Tonight.
Bernardo

Riff and Jets

The Sharks are gonna have their way

Tonight.

Well, they began it!

Riff

The Puerto Ricans grumble: Fair fight.

But if they start a rumble,
Well rumble em right.

All

And were the ones to stop em once and for

all,
Tonight!

Bernardo and Sharks

Were gonna hand em a surprise

Tonight.

Anita

Anitas gonna get her kicks

Tonight.
Well have our private little mix
Tonight.
Hell walk in hot and tired,
So what?
Dont matter if hes tired,
As long as hes hot
Tonight!

Riff and Jets

Were gonna cut em down to size

Tonight.
Sharks

We said, O.K., no rumpus,

No tricks.
But just in case they jump us,
Were ready to mix
Tonight.

Tony

Tonight, tonight,
Wont be just any night,
64

Riff

Womb to tomb!
Tony

Sperm to worm!
Riff

Ill see you there about eight.

Tony

Tonight . . .

Im counting on you to be there

Tonight.
When Diesel wins it fair and square
Tonight.
That Puerto Rican punkll
Go down.
And when hes hollered Uncle
Well tear up the town!

Maria

Tonight, tonight
Wont be just any night,
Tonight there will be no morning star,
Sharks

Were gonna rock it tonight!

Theyre gonna get it tonight,
They began it,
They began it,
The began it.
Well stop em once and for all.

Riff

So I can count on you, boy?

Tony

All right.

The Sharks are gonna have their way,

The Sharks are gonna have their day,
Were gonna rock it tonight.
Tonight!

Riff

Were gonna have us a ball.

Tony

All right.
65

Oh moon, grow bright,

And make this endless day endless night,

Jets

Were gonna jazz it tonight!

Tonight!
They began it,
And were the ones to stop em once and for all!
The Jets are gonna have their way,
The Jets are gonna have their day.
Were gonna rock it tonight.
Tonight!

This is not the

Maria we know!

ALL

Feel like running and dancing for joy,

For Im loved
By a pretty wonderful boy!

Tonight!

Girls

Modest and pure,

Polite and refined,
Well-bred and mature
And out of her mind!

ACT TWO
1. I FEEL PRETTY
Maria

I feel pretty,
Oh, so pretty,
I feel pretty and witty and bright!
And I pity
Any girl who isnt me tonight.

Anita

Tonight, tonight,
Late tonight,
Were gonna mix it tonight.
Anitas gonna have her day,
Anitas gonna have her day,
Bernardos gonna have his way
Tonight, tonight,
Tonight, this very night,
Were gonna rock it tonight!

I feel charming,
Oh, so charming
Its alarming how charming I feel!
And so pretty
That I hardly can believe Im real.

Maria

See the pretty girl in that mirror there:

Who can that attractive girl be?
Such a pretty face,
Such a pretty dress,
Such a pretty smile,
Such a pretty me!

Tonight, tonight,
Ill see my love tonight.
And for us, stars will stop where they are.
Maria and Tony

Today the minutes seem like hours.

The hours go so slowly,
And still the skiy is light.

I feel stunning
And entrancing,
66

Rosalia and Consuelo

Have you met my good friend Maria,

The craziest girl on the block?
Youll know her the minute you see her,
Shes the one who is in an advanced state of
shock.

Girls

Miss America
Speech! Speech!

Rosalia and Consuelo

She thinks shes in love.

She thinks shes in Spain.
She isnt in love,
Shes merely insane.

Maria

I feel pretty,
Oh, so pretty
That the city should give me its key.
A committee
Should be organized to honor me.

Consuelo

It must be the heat

Rosalia

Girls

Or some rare disease,

La la la la

Franciso

Or too much to eat

Maria

Rosalia

I feel dizzy,
I feel sunny,
I feel fizzy and funny and fine,
And so pretty,
Miss America can just resign!

Or maybe its fleas.

Girls

Keep away from her,

Send for Chino!

67

3. BALLET SEQUENCE / LO STESSO

TEMPO

Well find a way of forgiving

Somewhere . . .

A-rab

La la la la
Maria

Tony

And Ill take you away,

Take you far, far away out of here,
Far, far away till the walls and
the streets disappear.

Theres a place for us,

A time and place for us.
Hold my hand and were halfway there.
Hold my hand and Ill take you there
Somehow,
Some day,
Somewhere!

Officer Krupke

See the pretty girl in that mirror there:

7. PROCESSION AND NIGHTMARE

Officer Krupke

Girls

Girls

What mirror where?

Maria

Tony and Maria

Who can that attractive girl be?

Somewhere there must be a place

We can feel were free,
Somewhere theres got to be some place
For you and for me.

Girls

Which? What? Where? Whom?

Maria

Such a pretty face,

Such a pretty dress,
Such a pretty smile,
Such a pretty me!
Girls

Such a pretty me!

All

Theres a place for us, theres a place for us,

theres a . . .

A Girl

Tony

Theres a time for us,

Some day a time for us,
Time together with time to spare,
Time to learn, time to care,
Some day!

I feel stunning
And entrancing,
Feel like running and dancing for joy,
For Im loved
By a pretty wonderful boy!

Somewhere.
Well find a new way of living,
68

Yeah, you!
A-rab

Why it is Officer Krupke, Baby John.

Baby John

Top of the evening, Officer Krupke.

Ill crack the top of your skulls if you punks
dont stop when I whistle.
Hey, come back here ya little freaks!

All

6. SOMEWHERE

Theres a place for us,

Somewhere a place for us.
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us
Somewhere.

Who, me?

Snowboy

Ya see, cops believe everything they read in the

papers.

Hold my hand and were halfway there.

Hold my hand and Ill take you there

Action

Tony and Maria

To them, we aint human. Were cruddy

juvenile delinquents. So thats what we give
em.

Somehow,
Some day,
Somewhere!

Snowboy

9. GEE, OFFICER KRUPKE

(imitating Krupke) Hey, you!

Officer Krupke

Action

Hey, you!

Me, Officer Krupke?

69

Were the most disturbed,

Like were psychologicly disturbed.

Action

Action

Diesel

All

Lemme tell it to the world!

In the opinion on this court, this child is

depraved on account he aint had a normal
home.

We are sick, we are sick,

We are sick, sick, sick,
Like were sociologically sick!

Action

A-rab

Hey, Im depraved on account Im deprived.

In my opinion, this child dont need to have

his head shrunk at all. Juvenile delinquency is
purely a social disease!

Snowboy

Snowboy

Yeah, you! Gimme one good reason for not

dragging ya down to the station house, ya
punk.

Thats a touchin good story.

Action

Snowboy

Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke,

You gotta understand,
Its just our bringin up-ke
That gets us out of hand.
Our mothers all are junkies,
Our fathers all are drunks.
Golly Moses, natcherly were punks!

Just tell it to the judge.

Action

Dear kindly Judge, your Honor,

My parents treat me rough.
With all their marijuana,
They wont give me a puff.
They didnt wanna have me,
But somehow I was had.
Leapin lizards! Thats why Im so bad!

Action and Jets

Gee, Officer Krupke, were very upset;

We never had the love that evry child
oughta get.
We aint no delinquents,
Were misunderstood.
Deep down inside us there is good!

Diesel

Right!
Officer Krupke, youre really a square;
This boy dont need a judge, he needs an
analysts care!
Its just his neurosis that oughta be curbed.
Hes psychologicly disturbed!

Action

There is good!
All

Action

There is good, there is good,

There is untapped good!
Like inside, the worst of us is good!

Im disturbed!
Jets

Were disturbed, were disturbed,

70

I am sick!

Diesel

So take him to a headshrinker.

Action

Action

Hey, I got a social disease!

My father is a bastard,
My mas an S.O.B.
My grandpas always plastered,
My grandma pushes tea.
My sister wears a mustache,
My brother wears a dress.
Goodness gracious, thats why Im a mess!

A-rab

So take him to a social worker!

Action

Dear kindly social worker,

They say go earn a buck.
Like be a soda jerker,
Which means like be a schumck.
Its not Im anti-social,
Im only anti-work.
Gloryosky! Thats why Im a jerk!

A-rab

Yes!
Officer Krupke, youre really a slob.
This boy dont need a doctor, just a good
honest job.
Societys played him a terrible trick,
And sociologicly hes sick!

Baby John

Eek!
Officer Krupke, youve done it again.
71

Gee, Officer Krupke,

Were down on our knees,
Cause no one wants a fellow with a social disease.
Gee, Officer Krupke,
What are we to do?
Gee, Officer Krupke,
Krup you!

This boy dont need a job, he needs a year in

the pen.
It aint just a question of misunderstood;
Deep down inside him, hes no good!
Action

Im no good!
All

10. A BOY LIKE THAT

Were no good, were no good!

Were no earthly good,
Like the best of us is no damn good!

Anita

A boy like that whod kill your brother,

Forget that boy and find another,
One of your own kind,
Stick to your own kind!

Diesel

The trouble is hes crazy.

A-rab

A boy like that will give you sorrow,

Youll meet another boy tomorrow,
One of your own kind,
Stick to your own kind!

The trouble is he drinks.

Baby John

The trouble is hes lazy.

Diesel

A boy who kills cannot love,

A boy who kills has no heart.
And hes the boy who gets your love
And gets your heart.
Very smart, Maria, very smart!

The trouble is he stinks

A-rab

The trouble is hes growing.

Baby John

A boy like that wants one thing only,

And when hes done, hell leave you lonely.
Hell murder your love;

The trouble is hes grown.

All

Krupke, we got troubles of our own!

72

One of your own kind,

Stick to your own kind!

He murdered mine.
Just wait and see,
Just wait, Maria,
Just wait and see!

A boy who kills cannot love,

A boy who kills has no heart.
And hes the boy who gets your love
And gets your heart.
Very smart Maria, very smart!

Maria

Oh no, Anita, no,

Anita, no!
It isnt true, not for me,
Its true for you, not for me.
I hear your words
And in my head
I know theyre smart,
But my heart, Anita,
But my heart
Knows theyre wrong
And my heart
Is too strong,
For I belong
To him alone, to him alone.
One thing I know:
I am his,
I dont care what he is.
I dont know why its so,
I dont want to know.

Maria

Oh no, Anita, no,

You should know better!
You were in love - or so you said.
You should know better
11. I HAVE A LOVE
Maria

I have a love, and its all that I have.

Right or wrong, what else can I do?
I love him; Im his,
And everything he is
I am, too.
I have a love, and its all that I need,
Right or wrong, and he needs me, too.
I love him, were one;
Theres nothing to be done,
Not a thing I can do
But hold him, hold him forever,

Anita

A boy like that whod kill your brother,

Forget that boy and find another,
73

Be with him now, tomorrow

And all of my life!
Maria and Anita

When love comes so strong,

There is no right or wrong,
Your love is your life.
13. JUKEBOX, TAUNTING SCENE
14. FINALE
Maria

Hold my hand and were halfway there.

Maria and Tony

Hold my hand and Ill take you there,

Somehow
Maria

Some day!
Te adoro, Anton.

74

75

SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY

WEST SIDE STORY

The San Francisco Symphony gave its first concerts in December 1911. Its music directors have
included Henry Hadley, Alfred Hertz, Basil Cameron, Issay Dobrowen, Pierre Monteux, Enrique
Jord, Josef Krips, Seiji Ozawa, Edo de Waart, Herbert Blomstedt, and, since 1995, Michael
Tilson Thomas. The SFS has won such recording awards as Frances Grand Prix du Disque,
Britains Gramophone Award, and the United Statess Grammy. For RCA Red Seal, Michael
Tilson Thomas and the SFS have recorded music from Prokofievs Romeo and Juliet, Berliozs
Symphonie fantastique, two Copland collections, a Gershwin collection, Stravinsky ballets (Le
Sacre du printemps, The Firebird, and Persphone), and Charles Ives: An American Journey. Their
cycle of Mahler symphonies has received seven Grammys and is available on the Symphonys
own label, SFS Media. The recording of John Adamss Harmonielehre and Short Ride in a Fast
Machine won a 2013 Grammy for Best Orchestral Performance. Some of the most important
conductors of the past and recent years have been guests on the SFS podium, among them Bruno
Walter, Leopold Stokowski, Leonard Bernstein, and Sir Georg Solti, and the list of composers
who have led the Orchestra includes Stravinsky, Ravel, Copland, and John Adams. The SFS
Youth Orchestra, founded in 1980, has become known around the world, as has the SFS Chorus,
heard on recordings and on the soundtracks of such films as Amadeus and Godfather III. For two
decades, the SFS Adventures in Music program has brought music to every child in grades 1
through 5 in San Franciscos public schools. SFS radio broadcasts, the first in the US to feature
symphonic music when they began in 1926, today carry the Orchestras concerts across the
country. In a multimedia program designed to make classical music accessible to people of all ages
and backgrounds, the SFS launched Keeping Score on PBS-TV, DVD, radio, and at the website
[Link]. San Francisco Symphony recordings are available at [Link]/store.

Biographies

76

77

MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS

LEONARD BERNSTEIN

Michael Tilson Thomas first conducted the San Francisco Symphony in

1974 and has been Music Director since 1995. A Los Angeles native, he
studied with John Crown and Ingolf Dahl at the University of Southern
California, becoming Music Director of the Young Musicians Foundation
Debut Orchestra at nineteen and working with Stravinsky, Boulez,
Stockhausen, and Copland at the famed Monday Evening Concerts. In
1969, Mr. Tilson Thomas won the Koussevitzky Prize and was appointed
Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony. Ten days later he came to
international recognition, replacing Music Director William Steinberg in mid-concert at Lincoln
Center. He went on to become the BSOs Principal Guest Conductor. He has also served as Director
of the Ojai Festival, Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, and Principal Guest Conductor
of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He became Principal Conductor of the London Symphony
Orchestra in 1988 and now serves as Principal Guest Conductor. He is the founder of the New
World Symphony, Americas Orchestral Academy.
Michael Tilson Thomass recorded repertory reflects interests arising from work as conductor,
composer, and pianist. His television credits include the New York Philharmonic Young Peoples
Concerts, and in 2004 he and the San Francisco Symphony launched Keeping Score on PBS-TV.
Among his honors are Columbia Universitys Ditson Award for services to American music and
Musical Americas Musician and Conductor of the Year award. He is a Chevalier des Arts et des
Lettres of France, was selected as Gramophone 2005 Artist of the Year, was named one of Americas
Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, and in 2010 was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.

Composer, conductor, pianist, teacher, humanitarian, thinker, entertainer, and adventurous spirit,
Leonard Bernstein (1918-90), forged his many talents with an irresistible personality to transform
the way people everywhere hear and appreciate music. He broke rules, shattered precedents and
opened doors, insisting that the art of music could and should play a vital role in the lives of all
people.
Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts on August 25, 1918, Bernstein was the son of middle-class
Jewish immigrants. His musical abilities became apparent when he was a child and he began
composing while attending the Garrison and Boston Latin Schools. At Harvard College, his
musical studies became more serious. Accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia,
he studied piano with Isabelle Vengerova, conducting with Fritz Reiner, and orchestration with
Randall Thompson. In the summer of 1940, he began what would become a lifelong association
with the Boston Symphony Orchestras newly created summer festival at Tanglewood in western
Massachusetts. Bernstein became assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic when he was
only twenty-five; he became became music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1958. A
tireless educator, his landmark achievements include the award-winning Young Peoples Concerts
with the New York Philharmonic on CBS television and the six lectures he gave at Harvard
University in 1972-73 as the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry, which were subsequently
published and televised as The Unanswered Question.
Bernsteins successes as a composer ranged from the Broadway stage (most notably, West Side
Story) to concert halls all over the world, where his orchestral and choral works continue to thrive.
As conductor of a vast repertory, he was a dynamic presence on the podiums of the worlds great
orchestras for half a century, leaving a legacy that endures and continues to thrive through an
uncommonly rich and diverse catalogue of over 500 recordings and filmed performances.

78

79

STEPHEN SONDHEIM
Stephen Sondheim (b.1930), one of the most influential and accomplished composer/lyricists
in Broadway history, was born in New York City and raised in New York and Pennsylvania. As a
teenager he met Oscar Hammerstein II, who became Sondheims mentor. Sondheim graduated
from Williams College, where he received the Hutchinson Prize for Music Composition. After
graduation he studied music theory and composition with Milton Babbitt. He worked for a short
time in the 1950s as a writer for the television show Topper.
Mr. Sondheim has received Tony awards for Best Score, Music, and Lyrics for Company
(1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Into the Woods (1987), and Passion (1994), all
of which won the New York Drama Circle Award for Outstanding/Best Musical, as did Pacific
Overtures (1976) and Sunday in the Park with George (1984). In total, his works have accumulated
more than sixty individual and collaborative Tony Awards. Sooner or Later from the film Dick
Tracy won the 1990 Academy Award for Best Song. Mr. Sondheim received the Pulitzer Prize
for Drama in 1984 for Sunday in the Park with George. In 1983 he was elected to the American
Academy of Arts and Letters, which awarded him the Gold Medal for Music in 2006. In 1990
he was appointed the first visiting professor of contemporary theater at Oxford University and
was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award in the 1993 Kennedy Center Honors. His
collected lyrics with attendant essays have been published in two volumes: Finishing the Hat
(2010) and Look, I Made a Hat (2011).

80

ARTHUR LAURENTS
An award-winning playwright, screenwriter, librettist, director, and producer, Arthur Laurents
(1917-2011), was responsible for creating the librettos of many Broadway shows including Gypsy,
Do I Hear a Waltz?, Hallelujah, Baby!, Anyone Can Whistle, and Nick & Nora (the latter two which
he also directed). He wrote the screenplays for The Snake Pit, Anna Lucasta, Anastasia, Bonjour
Tristesse, The Way We Were, and The Turning Point; and the plays Home of the Brave, The Time of the
Cuckoo, and A Clearing of the Woods. Mr. Laurentss directing credits include productions of I Can
Get it for You Wholesale, Gypsy, La Cage aux folles, and Birds of Paradise.

JEROME ROBBINS
Jerome Robbins (1918-98), choreographer of ballets and director and choreographer of theater,
movies, and television, joined the corps de ballet of American Ballet Theatre in 1939, where he
went on to dance principal roles in the works of Fokine, Tudor, Massine, Balanchine, Lichine, and
de Mille. Mr. Robbins joined New York City Ballet in 1949, became an associate artistic director
with George Balanchine, and a co-ballet-master-in-chief with Peter Martins. His co-direction and
choreography of West Side Story won him two Academy Awards, and he triumphed on Broadway
with Fiddler on the Roof in 1964. Mr. Robbinss honors include four Tony Awards, five Donaldson
Awards, two Emmys, a Screen Directors Guild Award, and a New York Drama Critics Circle
Award. A 1981 Kennedy Center Honors Recipient, Mr. Robbins was awarded Frances Chevalier
dans lOrdre National de la Legion dHonneur and the Commandeur de lOrdre des Arts et des
Lettres, was an honorary member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and
was awarded a National Medal of Arts and Governors Arts Awards by the New York State Council
on the Arts.

81

ALEXANDRA SILBER (Maria)

Alexandra Silber attended Interlochen Center for the Arts and the Royal
Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, from which she graduated in
2005 just days before her London West End debut in Andrew Lloyd
Webbers The Woman in White. She later appeared as Julie Jordan in
Carousel at Londons Savoy Theatre, for which she received a TMA
award for Best Performance in a Musical.
Ms. Silber made her North American debut as Julie Jordan for
Reprise Theatre Company in Los Angeles, where she garnered an
Ovation nomination. She starred in Master Class at the Kennedy Center and made her Broadway
debut in the same production with Manhattan Theatre Club in spring 2011. She has performed
solo cabaret shows at Feinsteins at the Loews Regency and was a part of Barbara Cooks Spotlight
Series at the Kennedy Center. Last fall Ms. Silber starred in the North American premiere of
Love Story, The Musical at Philadelphias Walnut Street Theatre, and she also appeared in the new
one-woman musical Arlington as part of the Inner Voices series in New York. Ms. Silber made her
feature film debut in 1408, and has been a guest star on NBCs Law & Order. In April 2013 she
made her Carnegie Hall debut with the American Symphony Orchestra in a concert performance
of Song of Norway, followed by an appearance with the Orchestra of Saint Lukes at Caramoor in
She Loves Me.

82

CHEYENNE JACKSON (Tony)

Cheyenne Jackson is an actor, singer, and songwriter. He appeared in
Steven Soderberghs film Behind the Candelabra, and will be seen in
the film Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, opposite Gena Rowlands. On
and off-Broadway, Mr. Jackson has starred in The Performers, 8, Finians
Rainbow (Drama Desk nomination), Damn Yankees, Xanadu (Drama
League and Drama Desk nominations), The Agony & the Agony, All
Shook Up (Theater World Award, Drama League, and Outer Critics
Circle nominations), the premiere cast of Altar Boyz, Aida, Thoroughly
Modern Millie, On the 20th Century, and The 24 Hour [Link] has appeared in numerous films
such as United 93; his television roles include Danny Baker on 30 Rock and Dustin Goolsby, the
coach of Vocal Adrenaline, on Glee. A SONY/ATV songwriter and recording artist, he released his
first album of original music in 2013. At Carnegie Hall, Mr. Jackson has appeared with Michael
Feinstein in The Power of Two in 2010, and in his own solo show, Music of the Mad Men Era, with
the New York Pops in 2011. He also performed Music of the Mad Men Era at the Kennedy Center
with members of the National Symphony on New Years Eve in 2012.
Mr. Jackson is an international ambassador for amfAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research)
and he serves as the national ambassador and spokesperson for The Hetrick-Martin Institute and
the Harvey Milk High School. Mr. Jackson was recently named Out magazines Entertainer of the
Year.

83

JESSICA VOSK (Anita)

Jessica Vosks recent credits include Man of La Mancha at Houstons Theatre
Under the Stars and the New York City Center Encores productions of
Merrily We Roll Along and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She has also been
seen in Roundabout Theatre Companys Death Takes a Holiday and She
Loves Me. Ms. Vosk has performed with the New York Philharmonic in
Sondheims Company, and has also performed ABBAs musical Kristina both
at Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall in London.

KEVIN VORTMANN (Riff)

Kevin Vortmann appeared in the Broadway revival of A Little Night
Music; other New York credits include On the Town, Applause, Face the
Music, Lost in the Stars, Fiorello!, Stairway to Paradise, and Juno, and
the off-Broadway productions of Death Takes a Holiday and For Lovers
Only. At Carnegie Hall he appeared in Bernsteins Mass, Showboat, and
Mother Russia. Mr. Vortmanns other credits include the national tour of
Camelot, and the roles of Chris in Miss Saigon (Drury Lane Oakbrook,
Arvada Center), Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls (North Shore Music
Theatre), and Enjolras in Les Misrables (Pioneer Theatre Company). Mr. Vortmann is the
recipient of the Colorado Theatre Guilds Henry Award and Detroits Oscar Wilde Award.

84

JULIANA HANSEN (Rosalia)

Juliana Hansen has originated roles off-Broadway and performed as
Millie in Thoroughly Modern Millie on the first national tour; she is
currently starring in the role of Jasmine in Disneys AladdinA Musical
Spectacular. She was a finalist on NBCs Grease: Youre the One That I
Want!. Ms. Hansen received the LA Music Centers Spotlight Award for
Best Vocalist and Drama-Logue Best Actress award for The Secret Garden.
She has appeared as a soloist with Disney in Concert, and is featured on
Walt Disney Recordss The Lost Chords: Cinderella and The Lost Chords:
Peter Pan. Ms. Hansen has also released Juliana HansenLive at The Federal on Kritzerland
Records. She received a MA from the Guildford School of Acting in England.

CASSIE SIMONE (Francisca)

Cassie Simone recently portrayed Pocahontas in the new musical
spectacular Mickey and the Magical Map at Disneys Fantasyland
Theater. Recent theater credits include The Magic Horn at the
Geffen Playhouse, Surf the Musical in Las Vegas, Disneys Aladdin,
and Miss Saigon. She has toured alongside Pras Michel of The Fugees
in the US and Africa, and is also a published songwriter with work
appearing on film soundtracks and international television. She has
been featured in commercial work for companies including Time
Warner Cable, Wendys, Superpages, and Target.

85

LOUISE MARIE CORNILLEZ (Consuelo)

Louise Marie Cornillez has performed with orchestras including the
Atlanta Symphony, Emory Symphony, and Orchestre National de
Lille in France. She has sung the soprano solos in Handels Messiah,
Brahmss A German Requiem, and Vivaldis Gloria, and she has also
performed with Atlanta Opera, East West Players, San Gabriel Valley
Music Theater, and at the Sacramento Music Circus, among others.
Ms. Cornillezs other roles include Maria in West Side Story, Diana in
A Chorus Line, and Gigi in Miss Saigon, and she has also appeared in
productions of Sondheims Passion and Sweeney Todd. She originated the role of Imeldas Mother
in the world premiere of Imelda: A New Musical.

ZACHARY FORD (Diesel)

Zachary Ford has appeared in Monty Pythons Spamalot, Titanic, High
Fidelity, Shenandoah, Camelot, The Great Gatsby, Into The Woods,
Parade, and West Side Story. His engagements include performances at
the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Drury Lane Oakbrook, Apple Tree
Theatre, Porchlight Theatre, Aboutface Theatre, and at the Colorado
Shakespeare Festival. Mr. Ford has also appeared on television, including
roles in Passions, Got Home Alive, and national commercials. His film
credits include roles in The Broken Heart of Gnocchi Bolognese, The
Factory, and short films with Milliron Studios. He has studied voice with Peter Lightfoot, Kathryn
Hartgrove, Judith Haddon, Michael Dean, and Calvin Remsberg.

CHRIS MEISSNER (Baby John)

JUSTIN KEYES
Born and raised in San Jose, Justin Keyes Broadway credits include
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and The Apple Tree. He
has appeared on the national tours of Mary Poppins and, in the role of
Chip, The 25th Annual Putman County Spelling Bee. His regional credits
include appearances at Dallas Theatre Center, Kansas City Starlight,
Great Lakes Theatre Festival, MUNY, and Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera.
On television, he has been seen on Gossip Girl.

86

Chris Meissner studies in the Ray Bolger Musical Theater Program at

the University of California, Los Angeles. He has appeared in school
productions of Sweeney Todd (as Anthony), The Apple Tree (Adam),
and most recently in Spring Awakening (Otto). He has also worked
with Lainie Kazan and performed in her annual cabaret. Mr. Meissner
sings tenor for the ScatterTones, a co-ed a cappella group that won first
runner-up at this years ICCA finals.

87

LOUIS PARDO (A-rab)

Louis Pardos credits include the national tour of Jesus Christ Superstar;
the Southern California regional premiere of Avenue Q; Pippin at
Diversionary Theater; productions of The Full Monty, The Whos
Tommy,and Evita; and readings of Chess and Bells Are Ringing.

DAVID MICHAEL LAFFEY (Big Deal/Snowboy)

David Michael Laffey is a 2008 graduate of the Pacific Conservatory
of the Performing Arts, and has appeared in numerous productions,
including The Fix (as Gliardi/Cracker-Barrel),The Mikado
(Nanki-Poo),The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Mitch
Mahoney), Urinetown (Bobby), and The Music Man (Quartet). He
recently completed a run of The Secret Garden, and his season continues
with a return to the Hollywood Bowl in a production of Chicago. In
2011, he earned an Ovation Nomination for Best Actor in a Musical for his work in the southern
California premiere of Jerry Springer: The Opera at Chance Theater.

88

KELLY MARKGRAF (Bernardo)

Kelly Markgraf s recent engagements include the title role in Don
Giovanni with Madison Opera, Stravinskys Le Rossignol with the Boston
Symphony, a recital at Carnegies Zankel Hall, and Bachs O Ewigkeit,
du Donnerwort, BWV 60 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He
returned to Aspen Music Festival in 2013 as Ned Keene in a semi-staged
performance of Peter Grimes, conducted by Robert Spano. Mr. Markgraf
has performed the roles of Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro with
Kentucky Opera, and Papageno in Die Zauberflte with Apollos Fire
Baroque Orchestra. In concert, he joined the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for Ned Rorems
Aftermath, and also appeared with the New York Philharmonic and at the Music@Menlo Festival.

JULIA BULLOCK (A Girl)

Soprano Julia Bullock earned degrees from the Eastman School of
Music, Bard College, and the Juilliard School, where she performed
the title roles in Janeks The Cunning Little Vixen and Massenets
Cendrillon. Other roles include Pamina in Peter Brooks award-winning
production of The Magic Flute, and the title role in Purcells The Indian
Queen, directed by Peter Sellars, at the Teatro Real, Perm Opera House,
and the English National Opera. She has performed throughout the
US in recital and has appeared at numerous festivals, including Ojai,
Marlboro, and Caramoor. As Winner of the 2012 Young Concert Artists International Auditions,
she made critically acclaimed recital debuts in New York, and Washington, D.C.

89

RAGNAR BOLIN

SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY CHORUS

Ragnar Bohlin began his tenure as Director of the San Francisco Chorus
Symphony in 2007. Under his leadership, the Chorus received a Grammy
for Best Choral Performance for the recording of Mahlers Symphony No. 8
with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. Mr. Bohlin
served as choirmaster of Stockholms Maria Magdalena Church and holds a
masters degree in organ and conducting and a postgraduate degree in
conducting from the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. He studied
choral conducting with choir director Eric Ericson, orchestral conducting
with Jorma Panula, piano with Peter Feuchtwanger in London, singing with Swedish tenor Nicolai
Gedda, and through a Sweden-America Foundation scholarship he visited choruses throughout the US.
With Stockholms KFUM Chamber Choir, the Maria Magdalena Motet Choir, and the Maria Vocal
Ensemble, Mr. Bohlin has won numerous prizes in international competitions. He has received the
Johannes Norrby Medal for expanding the frontiers of Swedish choral music. Currently teaching at the
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, he has also taught at the Royal Academy in Stockholm and been
a visiting professor at Indiana University, the University of Michigan, and Miami University. In 2010,
he conducted the Swedish Radio Choir on a US tour; he also made his Carnegie Hall debut
conducting Brahmss German Requiem. With the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, he has
conducted J.S. Bachs Christmas Oratorio and B minor Mass, and Handels Messiah, and in 2011 he
appeared as guest conductor of the So Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Bachs Magnificat
and Prts Te Deum. In 2013 he also appeared as guest conductor with the Orquesta Clsica Santa
Cecilia and the Madrid Choral Society in Mendelssohns Elijah. With the Swedish Radio Choir and
Nordic Chamber Orchestra, he has conducted Sixtens Requiem, broadcast on Swedish Public Radio.
He recently assumed the role of Artistic Director of the Renaissance vocal ensemble Chalice Consort.
In March 2013, Mr. Bohlin was awarded the Cultural Achievement Award from the Swedish-America
Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco.

One of Americas most distinguished choruses, the 154-member San Francisco Symphony Chorus
is known for its precision, power, and versatility. Established in 1973 at the request of Seiji
Ozawa, then the San Francisco Symphonys Music Director, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus
has sung under the worlds major conductors, including SFS Music Directors Michael Tilson
Thomas, Herbert Blomstedt, Edo de Waart, and Seiji Ozawa; they have also performed with Kurt
Masur, James Conlon, Valery Gergiev, David Robertson, Charles Dutoit, Sir Neville Marriner, Sir
Roger Norrington, Yuri Temirkanov, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Wolfgang Sawallisch, and Robert Shaw.
Louis Magor served as the Choruss Director during its first decade, and in 1982 Margaret Hillis
assumed the ensembles leadership. The following year Vance George was named Director, serving
through the 2005-06 season. Ragnar Bohlin assumed the position of Chorus Director in March
2007. In February 2001, the Chorus made its Carnegie Hall debut in two sold-out performances
of music by Mahler and Stravinsky with MTT and the SFS. Recordings featuring the SFS Chorus
have won a total of eight Grammy awards, including three for Best Choral Performance. The
Chorus can be heard on the soundtracks of the films Amadeus, The Unbearable Lightness of Being,
Godfather III, and on the video/DVD release of the Emmy-winning Sweeney Todd with the SFS.

90

91

ALEXANDRA SILBER:

WEST SIDE STORY

In Rehearsal

92

Its almost as if Leonard

Bernstein wrote a crescendo
across the entirety of Marias
role. With each song her voice
grows and fills in density and
maturity and understanding.
93

JESSICA VOSK:

You cannot help but

move to America. By the
end I feel like Ive gone
on a roller coaster ride.

94

95

CHEYENNE JACKSON:

Probably the most exhilarating moment is

the Quintet. Its everybody singing their
own I want song.
96

97

RAY FROEHLICH
SFS Percussion:

Bernsteins score allows

me to freely express
and improvise my ideas
within the score. Its what
every drummer grows up
learning to do

98

99

ROBIN MCKEE,
SFS Associate Principal Flute:

We play Bernsteins
Symphonic Dances from
West Side Story often, and
play it very [Link]
to be able to play the
entire score is something
really special as we are
discovering many new
things. And to play it with
Michael Tilson Thomas,
these musicians and these
wonderful singers, is a
treat beyond words.

100

101

JESSICA VOSK:

Michael brings out emotions we didnt

think of beforeboth from a musical and
dramatic point of view.

102

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