Sondheim of the Day - West Side Story

Way back in 2009, I posted a tribute to the long-forgotten model-turned-society-hostess Ruth Ford, who hosted a famous theatrical [="gay"] salon at her home in the Dakota Building in New York:

...she hosted parties attended by such luminaries as Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Terrence McNally and Truman Capote - just imagine a single room that could possibly hold all those queens together!

But most exciting of all, it was in Ruth Ford's apartment that a young Stephen Sondheim was first introduced to Arthur Laurents and, later, to Leonard Bernstein. Together, these three remarkable men came up with one of the best musicals of all time - West Side Story! And it was all down to Miss Ford...

One of the most extolled successes in musical theatre history, this updated version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was made even more popular when Mr Laurents and producer Robert Wise turned it into a blockbuster movie in 1961 - which went on to win 10 Academy Awards; the most ever for a musical film. [Its influence stretches even to the modern era, as Steven Spielberg's just (groan) remade it; I shan't be rushing to see that.]

For young Stephen Sondheim, this was a spectacular debut indeed!

Without further ado, on with the show. It's a familiar and well-trodden plot - but with a plethora of tight-trousered gorgeous (and indelibly camp) boys, pretending to be members of macho street gangs, cavorting in Technicolor, what's not to like..?

West Side Story - Prologue [Russ Tamblyn and the Jets vs George Shakiris and the Sharks]

Of course, its score is timeless (with typically Bernstein staccato notes balanced by Mr Sondheim's clever and complex lyrics), and birthed a number of classics...

Chita Rivera, Rita Moreno and Bette Midler - America

Pet Shop Boys - Somewhere

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Raul Esparza - A Boy Like That/I Have a Love

[NB it was this version, from Lenny Bernstein's studio production of the score (see below) that spawned a famous French & Saunders skit]

Joyce DiDonato - I Feel Pretty

Kiri Te Te Kanawa and Jose Carreras [conductor Leonard Bernstein] - Tonight

Julian Ovenden - Maria [BBC Proms 2015]

It's no wonder, really, that West Side Story is still consistently voted among the best musicals of all time.

RIP, Stephen Joshua Sondheim (22nd March 1930 – 26th November 2021)

[One of a series of tributes I will be posting to Mr Sondheim this week. Yesterday's "Sondheim of the Day" was Company.]

Let me entertain you

RIP another hero...

From the BBC:

Arthur Laurents, writer of such classic stage musicals as West Side Story and Gypsy, has died in New York aged 93.

The director and screenwriter died at his Manhattan home from complications of pneumonia, his agent said.

Born in Brooklyn, the attorney's son began in radio and wrote military training films during World War II.

His screen credits include the Alfred Hitchcock film Rope, Barbra Streisand romance The Way We Were and 1977 ballet drama The Turning Point.

Laurents won a Tony award in 1968 as author of the book for the musical Hallelujah, Baby!, and another, in 1984, for directing La Cage aux Folles.

He remains best known for writing the books for West Side Story and Gypsy, hit Broadway shows that were later turned into movies.

Over at Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp today, there is more on Mr Laurents - read my blog.

As a little tribute to a great man, here are not one, not two, but three of Broadway's greats performing Let Me Entertain You from Gypsy!

Ann Reinking, Donna McKechnie and Chita Rivera - Let Me Entertain You (from Broadway Sings: The Music of Jule Styne, 1987)

Read the BBC article

A most influential salonniere

“My life has been too exciting, too wonderful, to let anything else, and that includes acting, come first.”

Sometimes you read about someone who has died, aged 98, and you think - "who the hell was she, and why does she deserve an obituary in the New York Times, for heaven's sake?".

However when I read about the death of the actress and Balmain model Ruth Ford, I suddenly realised why this lady was quite so significant. For, following her fantastically unsuccessful film career, Miss Ford (who had been married to Dr Mabuse actor Peter van Eyck, and later Mildred Pierce star Zachary Scott) created what would appear to be one of the campest theatrical "salons" in New York.

In the unlikely setting of her apartment in the (in)famous Dakota Building, she hosted parties attended by such luminaries as Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Terrence McNally and Truman Capote - just imagine a single room that could possibly hold all those queens together!

But most exciting of all, it was in Ruth Ford's apartment that a young Stephen Sondheim was first introduced to Arthur Laurents and, later, to Leonard Bernstein. Together, these three remarkable men came up with one of the best musicals of all time - West Side Story! And it was all down to Miss Ford...

West Side Story - I Feel Pretty

West Side Story - Tonight

Ruth Ford obituary