West Side Story - Broadway Creative Team

Leonard Bernstein was born on August 25, 1918, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He took piano lessons as a boy and attended the Garrison and Boston Latin Schools. At Harvard University, he studied with Walter Piston, Edward Burlingame-Hill, and A. Tillman Merritt, among others. Before graduating in 1939, he made an unofficial conducting debut with his own incidental music to "The Birds," and directed and performed in Marc Blitzstein's "The Cradle Will Rock." Then at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he studied piano with Isabella Vengerova, conducting with Fritz Reiner, and orchestration with Randall Thompson. In 1940, he studied at the ... read more Arthur Laurents was a renowned American playwright, screenwriter, and director who was born on July 14, 1917, in Brooklyn, New York. He was a prominent figure in the entertainment industry for over six decades and was widely regarded as one of the most influential playwrights of his generation. Laurents began his career in the theater as an assistant to playwrights such as Robert E. Sherwood and Moss Hart. He made his Broadway debut as a playwright in 1945 with the play "Home of the Brave," which dealt with anti-Semitism in the military. The play was a critical and commercial success and ... read more JEROME ROBBINS (born 11 October 1918 in New York City) was the younger of two children of Harry Rabinowitz, who emigrated to America from Poland in 1904, and his wife Lena Rips. Rabinowitz was at first a shopkeeper with a delicatessen on the Upper East Side of Manhattan; in the 1920’s he moved the family to Jersey City and then to Weehawken, New Jersey, where he and a brother-in-law established the Comfort Corset Company. Young Jerome, who showed an early aptitude for music, dancing, and theatrics, attended schools in Weehawken and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1935. Intending ... read more Recent Theatre Includes: Hamlet (Almeida/West End); A View From the Bridge (nominated for Best Sound Design Olivier Award 2015) (Young Vic/West End), Life of Galileo, Happy Days, A Season in the Congo, Disco Pigs (Young Vic) Hedda Gabler, Sunset At The Villa Thalia, The Red Barn, People, Places and Things (Winner for Best Sound Design, Olivier Awards 2016) (National Theatre/West End); Les Miserables (Wermland Opera, Sweden); The Lorax (Old Vic); The Crucible (Walter Kerr Theater Broadway); Oresteia (Almeida Theatre/Trafalgar Studios); Anna Karenina (Manchester Royal Exchange); The Moderate Soprano, Elephants (Hampstead Theatre); White Devil, As You Like It (RSC); Translations, Plenty ... read more Luke Halls is an Award Winning international Video Designer whose work crosses a range of disciplines including opera, theatre, dance, film, TV and worldwide sellout music tours. Luke received a Knight of Illumination Award for Don Giovanni at The Royal Opera House London and a BAFTA for his work on The Cube. Theatre includes Miss Saigon (Prince Edward Theatre and Japan), Man and Superman (National Theatre), Hamlet, starring Benedict Cumberbatch (London's Barbican Theatre), Mary Poppins (UK tour), Linda, The Nether and 2071 (Royal Court) and Master and Margarita (Complicite/ Barbican). Luke made his debut at The Metropolitan Opera in New York with Otello, ... read more Ivo van Hove began his career in 1981 and has been director of Toneelgroep Amsterdam since 2001. He has also been director of Het Zuidelijk Toneel. From 1998 to 2004, he managed the Holland Festival, annually presenting his selection of international theater, music, opera and dance. Until 2010 he was one of the artistic leaders of the Dramatic Arts department in Antwerp. Ivo van Hove's production work in theater includes Hedda Gabler at the National Theatre, A View From the Bridge at Young Vic, West End and Broadway, The Crucible on Broadway, Lazarus in New York and London, and Visconti’s The ... read more