WHO'S WHO
JEROME ROBBINS
DIRECTOR-CHOREOGRAPHER
New Jersey-born Jerome Robbins brought to West Side Story his unique talents and experience achieved from a wide variety of stage, film, television, and ballet productions. He appeared in the Broadway dance choruses of The Straw Hat Revue and Stars in Your Eyes before joining the corps de ballet of American Ballet Theater. His first ballet, Fancy Free (music by Leonard Bernstein) is still in repertory in 2004, the occasion of its sixtieth anniversary. By the time he joined the New York City Ballet in 1947, he and Bernstein had already transformed Fancy Free into the Broadway musical On the Town. His directing and choreographic achievements for Broadway alone consist of one major success after another: Billion Dollar Baby, High Button Shoes, Look Ma, I'm Dancin', Miss Liberty, Call Me Madam, The King and I, The Pajama Game, Peter Pan (also adapted for television), Bells Are Ringing, West Side Story, Gypsy, Fiddler on the Roof, along with Ballets: USA, a Broadway presentation of his own dances, as well as several major musicals for which he was consulted without credit. He also provided the dances for the film version of The King and I. Among the more than fifty ballets he created are Afternoon of a Faun, The Concert, The Cage, Fanfare, Les Noces, Dance at a Gathering, In the Night, Other Dances, Glass Pieces, and Ives Songs. In 1995 West Side Story Suite premiered at the New York City Ballet. In addition to his Academy Awards, Mr. Robbins has been honored with the Tony Award, Donaldson Award, Emmy Award, Screen Directors Guild Award, The New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors. One of his Tonys was presented for Best Director of a Musical for Jerome Robbins Broadway, the magnificent compilation of his major Broadway dances.
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library
LEONARD BERNSTEIN
COMPOSER
The extent of Leonard Bernstein's contribution to the world of popular, classical and theater music is almost beyond measure. Educated at Harvard, he became a student of Serge Koussevitsky and was named his conducting assistant at Tanglewood. In 1943 he was appointed assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and took over as music director in 1957. For the theater Mr. Bernstein composed the music for On the Town, Wonderful Town, Trouble in Tahiti, Candide, West Side Story and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. For films he provided the memorable score for the Academy Award-winning On the Waterfront. On television he hosted the "Young People's Concert" series, which continues to offer musical education to this day through videotape presentations. His concert and symphonic works include Jeremiah, The Age of Anxiety, Kaddish, Serenade, Five Anniversaries, Mass, Chichester Psalms (which contains music discarded from West Side Story), Slava and Songfest, Divertimento for Orchestra, Missa Brevis, Arias and Barcarolles, and Concerto for Orchestra: Jubilee. He has also provided the music for three major ballets of Jerome Robbins, among other artists: Fancy Free, Facsimile, and Dybbuk. His numerous awards include a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, a Tony Award for Distinguished Achievement, the Emmy Award and the Kennedy Center Honors.
"A Total Embrace of Music" from Classical Notes
Bio at Sony Classical
ARTHUR LAURENTS
BOOK
Arthur Laurents is the author of such distinguished dramatic works as Home of the Brave, The Time of the Cuckoo, Invitation to a March, The Enclave, The Radical Mystique, Scream, and Jolson Sings Again. For the musical stage he has provided book and/or direction for West Side Story, Gypsy, I Can Get it For You Wholesale, Anyone Can Whistle, Do I Hear a Waltz?, Hallelujah Baby!, La Cage aux Folles, The Madwoman of Central Park West, and Nick and Nora. His screenplays include Alfred Hitchcock's Rope, Anna Lucasta, The Snake Pit, The Way We Were and The Turning Point. He is a member of the Theater Hall of Fame, the Screenwriters' Guild, The Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is an emeritus member of the Council of the Dramatists' Guild. Among the many awards he has received are the Tony Award, the Golden Globe and the Drama Desk Award. Arthur Laurents is the author of Original Story By, a candid and entertaining portrait of his life in the theater and film world during the second half of the twentieth century.
STEPHEN SONDHEIM
LYRICS
Considered by many to be the master of contemporary American musical theater, Stephen Sondheim has written the music and lyrics for such diverse works as A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anyone Can Whistle, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Assassins, Passion, The Frogs, and Saturday Night. He has provided lyrics for the scores of West Side Story, Gypsy, and Do I Hear a Waltz?, and additional lyrics for the revival of Candide. Several Broadway and off-Broadway shows are compilations of Mr. Sondheim's produced and unproduced work. He composed music for Arthur Laurents' Invitiation to a March, and specialty
songs for George Furth's Twigs and Richard Nash's The Girls of Summer.
He and George Furth are the authors of the Broadway thriller Getting
Away with Murder, and he also co-wrote (with Anthony Perkins) the screenplay for The Last of Sheila. Film scores include Reds, Stavisky, and Dick Tracy, a song from which won him an Academy Award. His music and lyrics were also featured in The Seven Percent Solution, and he wrote the score for the television production Evening Primrose. Born in New York City,
he attended Williams College, class of 1950, majoring in music. Upon graduating magna cum laude and winning the Hutchinson Prize, he studied music and composition with Milton Babbitt. His early non-musical accomplishments include writing for the television series "Topper," and constructing the diabolical crosswords for New York Magazine.
Stephen Sondheim and his collaborators received
the Pulitzer Prize for Sunday in the Park with George.
S J Sondheim.com
Biography from The Guide to Musical Theatre
