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50 Years of 'West Side Story'

Part One: Making a New Kind of Musical()  

Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins. Credit: Alfred Eisenstadt, Time & Life/Getty

September 26, 2007 Getting West Side Story from page to stage was no easy task. Its creators had to rewrite Shakespeare, invent a convincing street language and find financial backers for a musical that perplexed pretty much everyone who heard it.

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Part Two: Casting Calls and Out-of-Town Trials()  

September 26, 2007 Grueling auditions — 13 of them, for the young unknown eventually cast as Maria — and an unprecedented 8-week rehearsal period were just two of the ways West Side Story departed from Broadway norms.

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Part Three: Broadway to Hollywood — and Beyond()  

Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer

September 26, 2007 Critics were lukewarm about West Side Story onstage, and some audiences found it alienating. The 1961 movie won 10 Oscars, though — never mind that Broadway librettist Arthur Laurents hated it — and sealed the show's success. In 50 years, it's been staged more than 40,000 times.

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