westsidestory

Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute and Knockdown Center present West Side Story, featuring professional artists in lead roles, with students and community members from around the city on stage. The production was conducted by Marin Alsop, a former protégée of Bernstein’s and a visionary leader of education projects, and directed by Amanda Dehnert, a nationally renowned theater director. Watch clips from a magical performance, the culmination of the inspiring city-side Somewhere Project. #somewhereproject
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Act 1: 01 - Prologue from Knockdown Center on Vimeo.

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Theater Sings Louder Than Screams of Hate; Somewhere Project's 'West Side Story'

Steve Schonberg

Theater can sing louder than hate can scream, and by doing so it speaks volumes. If theater is a reflection of our society, the Somewhere Project's take on the classic musical, West Side Story this past weekend, provides hope that there can be peace if only we ask what it means universally to be human, instead of reinforcing the labels that make us different. The production was perfectly timed, as voters pour their fears into politicians who tell them how so many "outsiders" are ruining our country. But, almost 60 years after West Side Story first premiered (1957), this thrilling new production by Carnegie Hall's Weil Music Institute reminds us that we've faced these serious cultural challenges before in many forms. Yet we continue to evolve, and incredibly, theater can simultaneously represent and inspire change.



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I do like those spiffy red sneakers they're all wearing

Carnegie Hall's West Side Story, Staged in a Queens Warehouse with Skylar Astin and Newcomer Morgan Hernandez, is a Musical Miracle

By Paul Wontorek

There’s nothing like a multi-million dollar slick staging of a classic Broadway musical featuring the best acting talents available and the greatest creative team money can buy. Then again, seeing the same classic on a high school or community theater level can prove just as exhilarating, with raw, wide-eyed talents giving the material a freshness that’s undeniable. The Carnegie Hall production of the Weill Music Institute staging of West Side Story, set in a warehouse in Queens called the Knockdown Center for just one weekend, offers the best of both worlds and for this 57-year-old icon of a show, the results are nothing short of miraculous.



The Sharks and the Jets are still rumbling, on a long jet runway of a stage, and the Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim score still throbs and pulses like the New York City of our dreams, especially played by a full orchestra led by music director Marin Alsop and music supervisor Leslie Stifelman. But this isn’t your grandpa's West Side Story. For one, hip hop choreographer Sean Cheesman has added new choreography to the show, which also features much of the original Jerome Robbins dance, recreated for the space by Julio Monge, a Broadway vet who actually danced as a Shark under Robbins’ eye in Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. For fans of the original, it’s jolting to see sequences like the Dance at the Gym conceived with a new eye, but Cheesman’s work fits beautifully into Robbins’ and has a modern twist that's vital to this new production’s success.
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The @carnegiehall #WestSideStory cast w/@biancamarroquin as Anita gets an opening night visit from @Chita_Rivera!

Carnegie Hall's large-scale production of West Side Story stars Skylar Astin as Tony, Bianca Marroquín as Anita and Morgan Hernandez, an 18-year-old student at the Boston Conservatory, as Maria. The production plays the Knockdown Center, a 50,000-square-foot former factory located in Maspeth, Queens that now serves as a "space dedicated to cross-disciplinary projects and collaborations.” The cast also includes 14 area high school students as well as a chorus of some 200 students from 25 high schools that sing new choral arrangements created for the production by Thomas Cabaniss. Amanda Dehnert and Marin Alsop helm the production.

Reimagining ‘West Side Story’ With Voices From Across New York

By CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM

A sharp winter sun filtered into the Knockdown Center, a former factory turned art space in Queens, on a recent afternoon as Skylar Astin and Morgan Hernandez enacted the bridal shop mock-wedding scene from “West Side Story.”

“Make of our hands one hand,” the young actors sang as they stood on the narrow stage. In “West Side Story,” with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, “One Hand, One Heart” is a hymnlike duet of arresting tenderness, an expression of a hope that will ultimately be dashed by racial tension and cultural mistrust. But as Mr. Astin (“Pitch Perfect”) and Ms. Hernandez (a freshman at the Boston Conservatory) continued to hold hands, dozens of teenagers solemnly flooded the stage. As they joined in, singing “Make of our hearts one heart,” what had begun as a duet about a personal connection became a choral affirmation of collective healing.

There are many novel touches to this new production of “West Side Story” that Carnegie Hall is presenting on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Knockdown Center. The choreography by Jerome Robbins, familiar to many from the 1961 movie version of the musical, is supplemented by Sean Cheesman’s new choreography, which draws a bridge to contemporary urban culture. With its two rows of bleachers hugging the catwalklike stage, the show offers an unusually immersive experience to audience members.
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Can't believe we have our first live audience tonight!

The Rumble

Riff, Tony and Bernardo!! Who is pumped about #WestSideStory ! @SkylarAstin I'm so proud! #SomewhereProject ❤️



Anita in the making #somewhere project @carnegiehall rehearsal process!



Interview: From Roxie Hart to Anita in ‘West Side Story’, Bianca Marroquín Conquers the World, One Song at a Time
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