Whose Story?

There's a new production of West Side Story on Broadway.  It's a radical interpretation created by cutting edge director Ivo van Hove that does away with the original choreography, removes the too cute song "I Feel Pretty" and is done in 100 minutes without intermission.

Yet the controversy surrounding it is about something else.  Cast member Amar Ramasar, who plays Bernardo, was involved in a scandal at the New York City Ballet--he allegedly sent sexual photos of his girlfriend to another dancer.  He was fired then reinstated at the Ballet, but protestors at West Side Story claim he's a sexual predator who needs to be removed from the show.

But that's not what I'm writing about.  It's this line in a piece on the story in Variety that fascinates me:

"West Side Story," which began previews in December, arrives on the Great White Way over 50 years after Stephen Sondheim's original production.

"Stephen Sondheim's original production"?  Since when was it his production.  When the musical opened in 1957, Sondheim, who'd never had a show on Broadway before, was decidedly the junior partner in the team that brought West Side Story to life.

You had internationally famous composer Leonard Bernstein creating the score (including the lyrics at first).  You had Broadway veteran Arthur Laurents writing the book.  You even had young Harold Prince, who'd already been involved in a number of hits, producing.  Sondheim was brought aboard late in the game, and his contributions were often ignored by the reviewers.

Above all, you had Broadway and ballet virtuoso Jerome Robbins in charge. In fact, there was a notable (and sometimes mocked) credit on the poster stating "Entire production directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins" with a box around it.

Robbins might have been an egomaniac, but it was his innovative approach that helped make the show what it was (and is).  Yet today, with Sondheim being the biggest Broadway name around, suddenly it's his production.  Now that's some revisionism worthy of Ivo van Hove.