18
SUMMER PROGRAM 2013
About Tonight
We wind-up our 95th season with
West Side Story
—our first production of this masterpiece
in nine years, and our seventh at The Muny. Like
South Pacific
, which you saw here (I
hope!) in July,
West Side Story
is considered a true classic of the musical theatre. Leonard
Bernstein’s score is wonderful, some the finest music ever written for the theatre. A young
Stephen Sondheim’s wise and warm lyrics foreshadow the monumental accomplishments
to come. And Arthur Laurents’ book gives wounded flesh and American sweat to
Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
Original Broadway director and choreographer Jerome Robbins took the writers’ work
and created breathtaking scenes. His dances have become iconic in American culture and
history, and many are permanently documented in the 1961 Oscar-winning film. Our
Muny team—director Gordon Greenberg, choreographer Chris Bailey, music director
Jim Moore, set designer Rob Morgan, and costume designer Andrea Lauer—have set
out to create a production that honors this show’s legacy but feels as alive and real to you
tonight as it did on Broadway in 1957.
This past February, the radio program
This American Life
broadcast a two-part story
about Harper High School in Chicago. It was a gripping and disturbing story of students
trying to grow up in an environment of gangs and guns. In one year, 29 Harper High
School students were shot, eight killed. The broadcast reminded me why
West Side Story
will always be performed, and why it will always feel sadly contemporary.
I’d like to mention a few of my colleagues who have yet to be thanked in these notes (and
also ask you to read my bio for a complete list). Throughout the season, Rob Denton and
Nathan Scheuer (ably supported by Shelby Loera and Matt Young) have alternated show-
by-show on lighting and our video wall, creating looks and visual concepts new to the
Muny stage. Bravo, all. Jason Krueger was our sound designer for his 14th year, and with
his team of Olivia Todd and Elyssa Kohen maintained our reputation for having some of
the best sound in the country. Longtime Muny music director Michael Horsley served as
our season music supervisor, offering support to all our creative teams and our brilliant
Muny orchestra. And Michael Baxter and Nancy Sherwin propelled our kids and teens
to new heights, giving our productions great joy, life and Muny magic.
Finally, thank you for being a wonderful audience. Big-hearted, astute and enthusiastic,
you inspire all of us. We are so proud to create for you. Have a great year, and we’ll see
you next summer for our 96th season.
Mike Isaacson
Executive Producer
