LAURENTS, Arthur.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

West Side Story. A Musical. First edition, inscribed by the lyricist on the front free endpaper, "Best wishes to Matt Stilles from Stephen Sondheim 4/9/93". Copies of this landmark of the Broadway stage inscribed by any of the collaborators are uncommon. This copy was signed a few days before two performances of a concert staging of Sondheim's Company on Broadway.Brooks Atkinson reviewed the show in the New York Times on 6 October 1957 and stated that West Side Story "is an organic work of art. The collaborators who put it together have fused their respective contributions into a single theatrical expression... The whole production has the solidity of a genuine creation... The fundamental distinction of West Side Story is the courage with which it adheres to its artistic convictions and its unwillingness to make concessions to popular taste. The authors are playing for keeps."It was the choreographer Jerome Robbins (1918-1998) who first proposed a collaboration on a contemporary musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet with the composer Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) and the playwright Arthur Laurents (1917-2011) in 1949. The project was slow to progress; Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021) joined the creative team only when Bernstein's first choices of lyricists were unavailable.The Broadway premiere took place at the Winter Garden Theatre on 26 September 1957. It ran for 732 performances and won Jerome Robbins the Tony Award for Best Choreographer (West Side Story included more danci

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