Thursday, July 11, 2019
10:30 AM
The 5th Avenue Theatre
1308 5th Ave - Seattle, Washington
Join us for a special student performance of West Side Story at The 5th Avenue Theatre.
Tickets are FREE to student groups and qualifying families.
Tickets are limited. Please request as soon as possible to ensure availability.
For students 14-19, registration is still open for the West Side Story Youth Summit. LEARN MORE
ABOUT THIS PRODUCTION
The 5th Avenue Theatre's Rising Star Project offers students the chance to develop professional skills through the process of producing and performing a musical on The 5th Avenue Theatre mainstage.
Beyond being entirely student performed, the 2018/19 Rising Star Project production of West Side Story will be run by a student technical crew and supported by a team of students who have taken on roles in the marketing, development, producing, creative, and casting departments. All participants are trained and mentored by dedicated theater professionals at The 5th Avenue Theatre.
The performance will last approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes with one 15-minute intermission.
West Side Story contains some sexual content, theatrical smoke and haze, strobe lights, cigarette smoking, and one gun shot.
Read West Side Story content advisories.Recommended for middle and high school aged students.
Please note: The 5th Avenue Theatre welcomes children ages 4 years and older. Children under four years of age, including babes in arms, will not be admitted.
ABOUT WEST SIDE STORY
“When West Side Story opened on Broadway on September 26, 1957, it changed the nature of the American musical and challenged the country’s view of itself. The show dealt seriously with violence, adolescent gangs, and racial prejudice—themes rarely included in musicals—and ended with one of the show’s leads dead on stage. The integration of music, dance, and script and the theatricality of the staging were a revelation to audiences. At a time when most musicals were star vehicles, with separate dancing and singing choruses, West Side Story was cast with relative unknowns who acted, sang, and danced in this exceptionally demanding work.
“The musical’s success must be credited primarily to its creators, extraordinary artists who brought out the best in each other. Composer Leonard Bernstein created his most memorable score—complex, passionate, tuneful, shocking, and bursting with rhythmic energy. Jerome Robbins, credited with conceiving the show, doubled as director and choreographer. No previous musical had included so much dance nor used it so dramatically and inventively to reveal character and plot and to further the action. Lyricist Stephen Sondheim, in his first Broadway musical, exhibited the wit, intelligence, and craft that would make him the pre-eminent songwriter of his generation. Arthur Laurents staged William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in contemporary Manhattan, with a lean, concise libretto, which allowed for the integration of language, music, dance, and movement. All of these elements came together to create a groundbreaking musical.” (The Library of Congress)
Music by Leonard Bernstein Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Arthur Laurents
Based on conception of Jerome Robbins