WEST SIDE STORY Comes To The Colonial Theatre 6/14-7/9

The national tour of the smash hit Broadway revival of WEST SIDE STORY comes to Boston's Colonial Theatre for a four week engagement June 14 through July 9. Tony Award-winning librettist Arthur Laurents' Broadway direction will be recreated for the tour by Cape Cod native, David Saint, the Associate Director on Broadway. The original Jerome Robbins choreography is reproduced by Tony Award-nominee Joey McKneely (The Boy from Oz, The Life).

Tickets go on sale on this Sunday, April 17 through an authorized ticket seller found only at Ticketmaster 1-800-982-2787, by visiting www.BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com/Boston and directly at the box office of The Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston Street, during special Sunday hours 10am - 6pm. The Colonial box office will resume normal business hours (Mon - Sat 10am to 6pm) beginning on Monday, April 18. Season Series Patrons interested in tickets should call Broadway Across America - Boston directly at 1-866-523-7469 and for Member tickets please call 1-866-551-7469. For groups of 15 or more please call Broadway Across America - Boston Group Sales at 617-482-8616 or email BostonGroups@broadwayacrossamerica.com. WEST SIDE STORY is part of the Lexus Boston Area Dealers Broadway Across America - Boston Series.

The new Broadway WEST SIDE STORY cast album won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album on January 31, 2010. The Bernstein and Sondheim score is considered to be one of Broadway's finest and features such classics of the American musical theatre as "Something's Coming," "Tonight," "America," "I Feel Pretty" and "Somewhere."

The new Broadway production began previews at the Palace Theatre on Broadway Monday, February 23, 2009, opened to critical acclaim breaking box office records at the Palace Theatre on Thursday, March 19, 2009, and recouped its $14 million investment after running only 30 weeks. The Broadway production played its final performance January 2, 2011. The musical played 27 previews and 748 regular performances, making it the longest-running production of the groundbreaking musical in Broadway history. The original production, which had held the record, played 732 performances on Broadway.

WEST SIDE STORY features scenic designs by James Youmans (Gypsy), costumes by Tony Award nominee David C. Woolard (The Farnsworth Invention, The Who's Tommy), lighting by Tony Award winner Howell Binkley (Gypsy, Jersey Boys), sound design by Tony Award nominee Dan Moses Schreier (Gypsy, A Catered Affair) and hair by Mark Adam Rampmeyer (The Farnsworth Invention).

WEST SIDE STORY is written by three theatrical luminaries: two-time Tony Award winner Arthur Laurents (book) and multiple Tony and Grammy Award winners Leonard Bernstein (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics) in his Broadway debut.
WEST SIDE STORY is produced by Kevin McCollum, James L. Nederlander, Jeffrey Seller with Terry Allen Kramer, Sander Jacobs, Roy Furman / Jill Furman Willis, Robyn Goodman / Walt Grossman, Hal Luftig, Roy Miller and Broadway Across America.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

WEST SIDE STORY had a long journey to Broadway. Six years elapsed between Jerome Robbins's first idea of a modern musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet and its actual Broadway debut in 1957. Originally, the action of the musical was to take place on New York's Lower East Side with tensions flaring between Jews and Catholics during the Passover and Easter holidays. The original setting left the authors uninspired and the project was put on hold. Years later, when Arthur Laurents proposed changing the basis of conflict from religion to race, the show gained creative momentum and WEST SIDE STORY was born.