Railway platforms at railway stations on double lines can be either side platforms or island platforms. With side platforms, track centres remain the same, and no space is lost for slewing the track to wider centres, as would be needed for an island platform. Side platforms usually have access to neighbouring streets. While most stations on double-track routes have two side platforms on opposite sides of the track, some stations have a single side platform (notably Cambridge in the U.K., although this will no longer be the case by 2012), split into two by a scissors crossing mid-way along its length. Platforms can also be staggered.

The distance between the track centres (track centerlines midway between rails) is typically about , while each side platform might be wide. The use of side platforms in new train and subway stations may be severely limited if space is at a premium due to regulations regarding the minimum width of platforms.

Most stations with two side platforms have an 'Up' platform which is used by trains heading towards the primary destination of the line, with the other platform being the 'Down' platform which takes trains heading the opposite way. Normally, the main facilities of the station are located on the 'Up' platform with the other platform accessed from a footbridge, subway or a track crossing. However, in many cases the station's main buildings are located on whichever side faces the town or village the station serves.

Larger stations may have two side platforms with several island platforms in between.

At grade crossings

Side platforms often appear exactly opposite each other, on either side of the tracks. However, at grade crossings, side platforms may appear on opposite sides of the grade crossing. When this is done, there are two common configurations:

Near-side platforms. In this configuration, each platform appears ''before'' the intersection. So for a north-south line, the northbound platform will appear south of the crossing, and the southbound platform will appear north of the crossing.

Far-side platforms. In this configuration, each platform appears ''after'' the intersection. So for a north-south line, the northbound platform will appear north of the crossing, and the southbound platform will appear south of the crossing.

Some platforms, such as the Skytrain in Vancouver have platforms which are yellow with rough and bumpy texture. This colour and texture helps the blind to sense that they are too close to the platform edge. This platform type is usually used for subways.

References

Railway Technical Web Pages

Category:Rail infrastructure Category:Railway stations Category:Railway track layouts

es:Plataforma lateral fr:Quai latéral ja:プラットホーム#相対式ホーム ko:승강장#상대식 승강장 pl:Peron boczny pt:Plataforma lateral zh-yue:側式月台 zh:側式月台

name	West Side Story
music	Leonard Bernstein
lyrics	Stephen Sondheim
book	Arthur Laurents
basis	''Romeo and Juliet''
productions	1957 Broadway1958 West End1959 U.S. tour1960 Broadway return1961 Film1980 Broadway revival1997 UK tour and West End revival2008 West End revival and UK tour2009 Broadway revival and US tourInternational productions
awards	}}

''West Side Story'' is an American musical with a script by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and choreography by Jerome Robbins. The musical is an adaptation of William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet''.

Set in New York City in the mid-1950s, the musical explores the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. The members of the Sharks from Puerto Rico are taunted by the Jets, a white working-class group. The young protagonist, Tony, one of the Jets, falls in love with Maria, the sister of Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks. The dark theme, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, and focus on social problems marked a turning point in American musical theatre. Bernstein's score for the musical has become extremely popular; it includes "Something's Coming", "Maria", "America", "Somewhere", "Tonight", "Jet Song", "I Feel Pretty", "A Boy Like That", "One Hand, One Heart", "Gee, Officer Krupke" and "Cool".

The original 1957 Broadway production, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins and produced by Robert E. Griffith and Harold Prince, marked Stephen Sondheim's Broadway debut. It ran for 732 performances (a successful run for the time), before going on tour. The production received a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical in 1957, but the award went to Meredith Willson's ''The Music Man''. It won a Tony Award in 1957 for Robbins' choreography. The show had an even longer-running London production, a number of revivals and international productions. The production spawned an innovative, award-winning 1961 musical film of the same name, directed by Robert Wise and Robbins, starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, Russ Tamblyn and David Winters. It won ten Academy Awards out of eleven nominations. The stage musical is produced frequently by schools, regional theatres, and occasionally by opera companies.

Background

Genesis of the concept

In 1949, Jerome Robbins approached Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents about collaborating on a contemporary musical adaptation of ''Romeo and Juliet''. He proposed that the plot focus on the conflict between an Italian American Roman Catholic family and a Jewish family living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, during the Easter–Passover season. The girl has survived the Holocaust and emigrated from Israel; the conflict was to be centered around anti-Semitism of the Catholic "Jets" towards the Jewish "Emeralds" (a name that made its way into the script as a reference). Eager to write his first musical, Laurents immediately agreed. Bernstein wanted to present the material in operatic form, but Robbins and Laurents resisted the suggestion. They described the project as "lyric theatre," and Laurents wrote a first draft he called ''East Side Story''. Only after he completed it did the group realize it was little more than a musicalization of themes that had already been covered in plays like ''Abie's Irish Rose''. When he opted to drop out, the three men went their separate ways, and the piece was shelved for almost five years.

In 1955, theatrical producer Martin Gabel was working on a stage adaptation of the James M. Cain novel ''Serenade'', about an opera singer who comes to the realization he is homosexual, and he invited Laurents to write the book. Laurents accepted and suggested Bernstein and Robbins join the creative team. Robbins felt if the three were going to join forces, they should return to ''East Side Story'', and Bernstein agreed. Laurents, however, was committed to Gabel, who introduced him to the young composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim auditioned by playing the score for ''Saturday Night'', his musical that was scheduled to open in the fall. Laurents liked the lyrics but wasn't impressed with the music. Sondheim didn't care for Laurents' opinion. ''Serenade'' ultimately was shelved.

Laurents was soon hired to write the screenplay for a remake of the 1934 Greta Garbo film ''The Painted Veil'' for Ava Gardner. While in Hollywood, he contacted Bernstein, who was in town conducting at the Hollywood Bowl. The two met at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and the conversation turned to juvenile delinquent gangs, a fairly recent social phenomenon that had received major coverage on the front pages of the morning newspapers due to a Chicano turf war. Bernstein suggested they rework ''East Side Story'' and set it in Los Angeles, but Laurents felt he was more familiar with Puerto Ricans and Harlem than he was with Mexican Americans and Olvera Street. The two contacted Robbins, who was enthusiastic about a musical with a Latin beat. He arrived in Hollywood to choreograph the dance sequences for ''The King and I'', and he and Laurents began developing the musical while working on their respective projects, keeping in touch with Bernstein, who had returned to New York. When the producer of ''The Painted Veil'' replaced Gardner with Eleanor Parker and asked Laurents to revise his script with her in mind, he backed out of the film, freeing him to devote all his time to the stage musical.

Collaboration and development

In New York, Laurents went to the opening night party for a new play by Ugo Betti, and there he met Sondheim, who had heard that ''East Side Story'', now retitled ''West Side Story'', was back on track. Bernstein had decided he needed to concentrate solely on the music, and he and Robbins had invited Betty Comden and Adolph Green to write the lyrics, but the team opted to work on ''Peter Pan'' instead. Laurents asked Sondheim if he would be interested in tackling the task. Initially he resisted, because he was determined to write the full score for his next project (''Saturday Night'' had been aborted), but Oscar Hammerstein convinced him that he would benefit from the experience, and he accepted. Meanwhile, Laurents had written a new draft of the book changing the characters' backgrounds: Anton, once an Italian American, was now of Polish descent, and the formerly Jewish Maria had become a Puerto Rican.

The original book Laurents wrote closely adhered to ''Romeo and Juliet'', but the characters based on Rosaline and the parents of the doomed lovers were eliminated early on. Later the scenes related to Juliet's faking her death and committing suicide also were deleted. Language posed a problem; four-letter curse words were uncommon in the theatre at the time, and slang expressions were avoided for fear they would be dated by the time the production opened. Laurents ultimately invented what sounded like real street talk but actually wasn't: "cut the frabba-jabba", for example. Sondheim converted long passages of dialogue, and sometimes just a simple phrase like "A boy like that would kill your brother," into lyrics. With the help of Oscar Hammerstein, Laurents convinced Bernstein and Sondheim to move "One Hand, One Heart", which he considered too pristine for the balcony scene, to the scene set in the bridal shop, and as a result "Tonight" was written to replace it. Laurents felt that the building tension needed to be alleviated in order to increase the impact of the play's tragic outcome, so comic relief in the form of Officer Krupke was added to the second act. He was outvoted on other issues: he felt the lyrics to "América" and "I Feel Pretty" were too witty for the characters singing them, but they stayed in the score and proved to be audience favorites. Another song, "Kid Stuff", was added and quickly removed during the Washington, D.C. tryout when Laurents convinced the others it was helping tip the balance of the show into typical musical comedy.

Bernstein composed ''West Side Story'' and ''Candide'' concurrently, which led to some switches of material between the two works. Tony and Maria's duet, "One Hand, One Heart," was originally intended for Cunegonde in ''Candide''. The music of "Gee, Officer Krupke" was pulled from the Venice scene in ''Candide''. Laurents explained the style that the creative team finally decided on: "Just as Tony and Maria, our Romeo and Juliet, set themselves apart from the other kids by their love, so we have tried to set them even further apart by their language, their songs, their movement. Wherever possible in the show, we have tried to heighten emotion or to articulate inarticulate adolescence through music, song or dance."

The show nearly was complete in the fall of 1956, but almost everyone on the creative team needed to fulfill other commitments first. Robbins was involved with ''Bells Are Ringing'', then Bernstein with ''Candide'', and in January 1957 ''A Clearing in the Woods'', Laurents' latest play, opened and quickly closed. When a backers' audition failed to raise any money for ''West Side Story'' late in the spring of 1957, only two months before the show was to begin rehearsals, producer Cheryl Crawford pulled out of the project. Every other producer already had turned down the show, deeming it too dark and depressing. Bernstein was despondent, but Sondheim convinced his friend Hal Prince, who was in Boston overseeing the out-of-town tryout of the new George Abbott musical ''New Girl in Town'', to read the script. He liked it but decided to ask Abbott, his longtime mentor, for his opinion, and Abbott advised him to turn it down. Prince, aware that Abbott was the primary reason ''New Girl'' was in trouble, decided to ignore him, and he and his producing partner Robert Griffith flew to New York to hear the score. In his memoirs, Prince recalled, "Sondheim and Bernstein sat at the piano playing through the music, and soon I was singing along with them."

Production period

Prince began cutting the budget and raising money. Robbins then announced he didn't want to choreograph the show, but changed his mind when Prince agreed to an eight-week dance rehearsal period (instead of the customary four), since there was to be more dancing in ''West Side Story'' than in any previous Broadway show, and allowed Robbins to hire Peter Gennaro as his assistant. Originally, when considering the cast, Laurents wanted James Dean for the lead role of Tony, but the actor had died before hearing of it. Sondheim found Larry Kert and Chita Rivera, who created the roles of Tony and Anita, respectively. Getting the work on stage was still not easy. Bernstein told ''Rolling Stone'':

Throughout the rehearsal period, the New York newspapers were filled with articles about gang warfare, keeping the show's plot timely. Robbins kept the cast members playing the Sharks and the Jets separate in order to discourage them from socializing with each other and reminded everyone of the reality of gang violence by posting news stories on the bulletin board backstage. Robbins wanted a gritty realism from his sneaker- and jeans-clad cast. He gave the ensemble more freedom than Broadway dancers had previously been given to interpret their roles, and the dancers were thrilled to be treated like actors instead of just choreographed bodies. As the rehearsals wore on, Bernstein fought to keep his score together, as other members of the team called on him to cut out more and more of the sweeping or complex "operatic" passages. Columbia Records initially declined to record the cast album, saying the score was too depressing and too difficult.

There were problems with Oliver Smith's designs. His painted backdrops were stunning, but the sets were, for the most part, either shabby looking or too stylized. Prince refused to spend money on new construction, and Smith was obliged to improve what he had as best he could with very little money to do it.

The pre-Broadway run in Washington, D.C. was a critical and commercial success, although none of the reviews mentioned Sondheim, listed as co-lyricist, who was overshadowed by the better-known Bernstein. Bernstein magnanimously removed his name as co-author of the lyrics, although Sondheim was uncertain he wanted to receive sole credit for what he considered to be overly florid contributions by Bernstein. Robbins demanded and received a "Conceived by" credit, and used it to justify his making major decisions regarding changes in the show without consulting the others. As a result, by opening night on Broadway, none of his collaborators were talking to him.

It has been rumored that while Bernstein was off trying to fix the musical ''Candide'', Sondheim wrote some of the music for ''West Side Story'', and that Bernstein’s co-lyricist billing mysteriously disappeared from the credits of ''West Side Story'' during the tryout, presumably as a trade-off. However, Suskin states in ''Show Tunes'' that "As the writing progressed and the extent of Bernstein's lyric contributions became less, the composer agreed to rescind his credit...Contrary to rumor, Sondheim did not write music for the show; his only contribution came on "Something's Coming", where he developed the main strain of the chorus from music Bernstein wrote for the verse.)

Synopsis

Act 1

Two teenage gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, struggle for control of the neighborhood, amidst police whistles and taunts (Prologue). They are warned by Lt. Schrank and Officer Krupke to stop fighting on their beat. The police chase the Sharks off, and then the Jets plan how they can assure their continued dominance of the street. The Jets' leader, Riff, suggests setting up a rumble with the Sharks. He plans to make the challenge to Bernardo, the Sharks' leader, that night at the neighborhood dance. Riff wants to convince his friend and former member of the Jets, Tony, to meet the Jets at the dance, but some of the Jets are unsure of his loyalty ("Jet Song"). Riff meets Tony while he's working at Doc's Drugstore to persuade him to come. Loyal to Riff, Tony agrees, but he wants no further part of gang life and imagines a better future ("Something's Coming").

Maria works in a bridal shop with Anita, the girlfriend of her brother, Bernardo. Maria has just arrived from Puerto Rico, and her family has selected Chino, a member of the Sharks, to be her future husband. Anita makes Maria a dress to wear to the neighborhood dance.

At the dance, after introductions, the teenagers begin to dance; soon a challenge dance is called ("Dance at the Gym"), during which Tony and Maria (who aren't taking part in the challenge dance) see each other across the room and are drawn to each other. They dance together, forgetting the tension in the room, fall in love, and try to kiss, but Bernardo pulls his sister from Tony and sends her home. Riff and Bernardo agree to meet for a War Council at Doc's, a Drug store which is considered neutral ground, but meanwhile, an infatuated and happy Tony finds Maria's building and serenades her outside her bedroom ("Maria"). He appears on her fire escape, and the two profess their love for one another ("Tonight"). Meanwhile, Anita and the other Shark girls discuss the differences between the territory of Puerto Rico and the mainland United States of America ("América"). The Jets get antsy while waiting for the Sharks inside Doc's Drug Store. They let out all of their aggression that they might exhibit in a large, angry dance ("Cool") The Sharks arrive to discuss weapons to use in the rumble. Tony suggests "a fair fight" (fists only), which the leaders agree to, despite the other members' protests. Bernardo believes that he will fight Tony, but must settle for fighting Diesel instead. This is followed by a monologue by the ineffective Lt. Schrank trying to find out the location of the rumble. Tony tells Doc about Maria. Doc is worried for them while Tony is convinced that nothing can go wrong; he is in love.

Tony meets Maria at the bridal shop the next day, where they dream of their wedding ("One Hand, One Heart"). She asks Tony to stop the fight, which he agrees to do. Tony, Maria, Anita, Bernardo (and the Sharks), and Riff (and the Jets) all anticipate the events to come that night ("Tonight Quintet"). The gangs meet each other under the highway, and as the fight between Bernardo and Diesel is just beginning, Tony arrives and tries to stop the rumble. Though Bernardo taunts Tony, ridiculing his attempt to make peace and provoking him in every way, Tony keeps his composure. When Bernardo pushes Tony, Riff punches him in Tony's defense. The two draw their switchblades and get in a knife fight ("The Rumble"). Tony warns Riff to back away, but Riff shakes him off and continues the fight. In an important moment of the show, Riff has an opportunity to stab Bernardo, but Tony holds him back leaving Riff vulnerable. Bernardo stabs Riff. Tony then kills Bernardo in a fit of rage. The two gangs then go into a free-for-all. The sound of approaching sirens is heard, and everyone scatters, except Tony, who stands in shock at what he has done. The tomboy Anybodys, who stubbornly wishes that she could become a Jet, tells Tony to flee from the scene at the last moment. Only the bodies of Riff and Bernardo remain.

Act 2

In her bedroom, Maria has not heard the news and daydreams happily about seeing Tony with her friends—Rosalia, Consuelo, Teresita and Francisca ("I Feel Pretty"). Just then, Chino brings the news that Tony has killed Bernardo. Maria flees to her bedroom, praying that Chino is mistaken. Tony arrives to see Maria, and in a fit of rage she throws her fists at him until he finally calms her down and they plan to run away together; as the walls of Maria's bedroom disappear, they find themselves in a dreamlike world of peace ("Somewhere"). They begin to make love.

The Jets try their hardest to get their minds off the death of Riff by poking fun at all of the adults who try to make sense of what they do, ("Gee, Officer Krupke"). The Jets make Action leader of the gang. Anybodys brings news that she overheard Chino planning to hunt down Tony and kill him with a gun. The Jets then spread out to find Tony and protect him from Chino. They also accept Anybodys into the Jets. Anybodys falls in love with Action.

A grieving Anita arrives at Maria's apartment. As Tony leaves, he tells Maria to meet him at Doc's so they can run away to the country. Anita sees that Tony has been with Maria, and asks in horror how she can love the man who killed her brother ("A Boy Like That"). Maria responds passionately with her own song ("I Have a Love"), though, and Anita understands that Maria loves Tony as much as she had loved Bernardo. She admits that Chino has a gun and is looking for Tony.

Lt. Schrank arrives to question Maria, and Anita reluctantly agrees to go to Doc's to tell Tony to wait. At the store, the Jets taunt Anita with racist innuendo and insults. The taunts turn into physical abuse, and Doc returns to the store horrified to find the boys nearly raping Anita. In her anger, Anita, who is in tears, tells the Jets that Bernardo was right about them, and then claims that Chino has killed Maria in jealousy. Anita rushes out of the store. Doc relates the news to Tony, who has been dreaming of heading to the countryside to have children with Maria. Feeling there is no longer anything to live for, Tony leaves to find Chino, begging for him to die as well. Just as Tony sees Maria alive, Chino arrives and shoots Tony. The Jets, Sharks, and adults flock around the lovers. Maria holds Tony in her arms (and sings a quiet, brief reprise of "Somewhere") as he dies. Angry at the death of another friend, the Jets move towards the Sharks but Maria takes Chino's gun and tells everyone that hatred is what killed Tony and the others, and now she can kill, because now she hates, too. However, she is unable to bring herself to fire the gun and drops it, crying in grief. Gradually, all the members of both gangs assemble on either side of Tony's body, showing that the feud is over. The Jets and Sharks form a procession, and together they carry Tony away. Maria sits on the ground, looking out, realizing her true love is gone.

Characters

The Jets

Riff: leader/co-founder of the Jets

Tony: the co-founder of the Jets, falls in love with Maria

Action: easily angered and excited

A-Rab: Baby John's big brother figure

Baby John: the youngest of the Jets, A-Rab's best friend

Diesel: toughest of the gang, tall and muscular

Ice: cool, calm, collected (film version only)

Snowboy

Big Deal

Gee-Tar

Tiger

Mouthpiece

The Sharks

Bernardo: the leader of the Sharks

Chino: young and shy, attracted to Maria

Pepe: Bernardo's right hand man, Consuelo's boyfriend

Indio: quiet, Rosalia's boyfriend

Others: Luis, Anxious, Toro, Nibbles, Moose and Juano

Jet Girls

Velma: Riff's girlfriend in the play, Ice's girlfriend in the film

Graziella: Diesel's girlfriend in the play, Riff's girlfriend in the film

Anybodys: a tomboy who wishes to become a Jet

Minnie: Baby John's girlfriend

Clarice

Pauline: A-Rab's girlfriend in the Australian production

Shark Girls

Maria: Bernardo's sister, falls in love with Tony

Anita: Bernardo's girlfriend

Consuelo: Shark girl with dyed blonde hair, Pepe's girlfriend

Rosalia: who wants to return to Puerto Rico, Indio's girlfriend

Francisca: a young, quirky girl who is not very bright, Luis' girlfriend, hangs out with Maria, Rosalia, and Consuelo

Teresita (film version only)

Estella

Margarita

The Adults

Officer Krupke: a neighborhood police officer

Doc: owner of the Drug Store

Lt. Schrank: the precinct's nasty police lieutenant

Glad Hand: social worker and chaperone at the dance

Songs

; Act 1

Overture (Instrumental)

"Prologue" (Instrumental) – Jets and Sharks

"Jet Song" – Riff, Action, Baby John, A-rab, Big Deal and Jets

"Something's Coming" – Tony

"Dance At The Gym" (Instrumental) – Jets and Sharks

"Maria" – Tony

"Tonight" – Tony and Maria

"America" – Anita, Rosalia, Shark Girls,

"Cool" – Riff and Jets

"One Hand, One Heart" – Tony and Maria

"Tonight Quintet and Chorus" – Anita, Tony, Maria, Bernardo, Riff, Jets and Sharks

"The Rumble" (''Dance'') – Jets and Sharks

; Act 2

"I Feel Pretty" ("Me Siento Hermosa" in the 2009 revival) – Maria, Consuelo, Rosalia, Teresita, Francisca and Shark Girls.

"Somewhere" (Song and Dance) – Company and "Dream Consuelo" (in the 2009 revival, "Kiddo", Tony, Maria, and Company)

"Gee, Officer Krupke" – Action, A-rab, Diesel, Baby John and the Jets

"A Boy Like That" ("Un Hombre Así" in the 2009 revival) / "I Have A Love" – Anita and Maria

"Taunting Scene" (Instrumental) – Anita and Jets

"Finale" – Tony and Maria

Shakespearean basis

Characters

Many of the key characters in ''West Side Story'' are based on counterparts in ''Romeo and Juliet'':

Tony/Romeo

Maria/Juliet

Bernardo/Tybalt

Anita/Nurse and Lady Capulet

Riff/Mercutio

Baby John/Benvolio

Doc/Friar Laurence and the Apothecary

Chino/Paris

Jets/Montagues

Sharks/Capulets

Schrank & Officer Krupke/Prince Escalus and Citizens

Action/Sampson

A-Rab/Abraham

Anybodys/Balthasar

Story parallels

''Romeo and Juliet'' starts out with a street fight between the Montagues and Capulets; the Jets and the Sharks have a similar fight.

The beginning fight is broken up by Krupke and Schrank, just as Prince Escalus breaks up the Montague-Capulet fight.

Tony has a reoccurring dream, similar to Romeo like the one he tells Mercutio about.

Juliet is betrothed to Paris, and Maria has been set up with Chino.

Some Montague men crash the Capulet party in which Romeo meets Juliet. In ''West Side Story'', Maria and Tony see each other from opposite sides of the gym and are immediately attracted to each other.

Romeo searches for Juliet and finds her at her balcony. After the dance, Tony finds Maria and uses the fire escape.

Romeo and Juliet go to a Friar to get married; Maria and Tony role-play a wedding during their tryst in the bridalshop.

In the big fight scene, Bernardo kills Riff like Tybalt kills Mercutio; Tony avenges Riff's death by killing Bernardo, just as Romeo kills Tybalt.

The Capulet nurse is played around with and disgraced by Montague men, while Anita is taunted and attacked by the Jets.

Both stories feature Maria/Juliet's false death and Tony/Romeo's suicidal response to his mistaken belief that his love is dead. An enraged Anita, following the attempted rape, deliberately tells the Jets that Chino has killed Maria, instead of conveying the original message of where Tony should meet with her. Juliet fakes her death, but an explanatory message sent to Romeo is delayed, causing him not to know her death is but feigned. Tony seeks out Chino in misery, wishing to die also. Romeo wishes to visit Juliet's grave to take poison and die with her.

Productions

Original Broadway production

After tryouts in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia beginning in August 1957, the original Broadway production opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 26, 1957 to positive reviews. The production was directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, produced by Robert E. Griffith and Harold Prince and starred Larry Kert as Tony, Carol Lawrence as Maria, Chita Rivera as Anita and David Winters as Baby John the youngest of the gang members. Robbins won the Tony Award for Best Choreographer, and Oliver Smith won the Tony for Best Scenic Designer. Also nominated were Carol Lawrence, as Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical, Max Goberman as Best Musical Director, and Irene Sharaff for Best Costume Design. Carol Lawrence received the 1958 Theatre World Award. The production ran for 732 performances at the Winter Garden Theatre before touring and then returning to the Winter Garden Theatre in 1960 for another 253 performance engagement.

The other principal or notable cast members in the original production were: Anybodys: Lee Becker, Riff: Michael Callan, A-Rab: Tony Mordente, Action: Eddie Roll, Big Deal: Martin Charnin, Gee-Tar: Tommy Abbott; Velma: Carole D'Andrea, Bernardo: Ken Le Roy, Chino: Jamie Sanchez, Nibbles: Ronnie Lee; Rosalia: Marilyn Cooper, Consuelo: Reri Grist, Teresita: Carmen Gutierrez, Francisca: Elizabeth Taylor; Lt. Schrank: Arch Johnson, Doc: Art Smith, and Krupke: William Bramley. Tucker Smith would join the original production several months after its debut as a replacement for the role of Big Deal.

Original London production

The 1958 European premiere at the Manchester Opera House transferred to London where it opened at Her Majesty's Theatre in London's West End on Friday 12 December 1958 and ran until June 1961 with a total of 1,039 performances. Robbins directed and choreographed, and it was co-choreographed by Peter Gennaro, with scenery by Oliver Smith. Featured performers were George Chakiris, who won an Academy Award as Bernardo in the 1961 film version, as Riff, Marlys Watters as Maria, Don McKay as Tony, and Chita Rivera as Anita. David Holliday, who had been playing Gladhand since the London opening, took over as Tony, playing opposite Roberta D'Esti's Maria, and Mary Preston as Anita.

In February 1962, the West End (H. M. Tennent) production launched a five-month Scandinavian tour opening in Copenhagen, continuing to Oslo, Goteborg, Stockholm and Helsinki. Robert Jeffrey took over from David Holliday as Tony and Jill Martin played Maria.

1980 Broadway revival

A Broadway revival opened at the Minskoff Theatre on February 14, 1980 and closed on November 30, 1980, after 333 performances. It was directed and choreographed by Robbins with the assistance of Tom Abbott and Lee Becker Theodore and scenery was by Oliver Smith. It starred Ken Marshall as Tony, Hector Jamie Mercado as Bernardo, Josie de Guzman as Maria, and Debbie Allen as Anita. Both de Guzman and Allen received Tony Award nominations as Best Featured Actress in a Musical, and the musical was nominated as best Reproduction (Play or Musical). Allen won the Drama Desk Award as Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical. Other notable cast members in the revival include: Brent Barrett as Diesel, Harolyn Blackwell as Francisca, Stephen Bogardus as Mouth Piece, Reed Jones as Big Deal, and Sammy Smith as Doc. Several dances from ''West Side Story'' were presented as the featured performances in the Tony Award-winning 1989 Broadway production, ''Jerome Robbins' Broadway''.

2009 Broadway revival

In 2007, Arthur Laurents expressed disappointment in the Sam Mendes 2003 Broadway revival, stating "I've come up with a way of doing it that will make it absolutely contemporary without changing a word or a note." He directed a revival at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. that ran from December 15, 2008 through January 17, 2009. It began previews on Broadway at the Palace Theatre on February 23, 2009 and opened officially on March 19, 2009. The production wove Spanish lyrics and dialogue into the English libretto. The translations are by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Laurents stated, "The musical theatre and cultural conventions of 1957 made it next to impossible for the characters to have authenticity. Every member of both gangs was always a potential killer even then. Now they actually will be. Only Tony and Maria try to live in a different world". In August 2009, some of the lyrics for "A Boy Like That" ("Un Hombre Asi") and "I Feel Pretty" ("Me Siento Hermosa"), which were previously sung in Spanish in the revival, were changed back to the original English. However, the Spanish lyrics sung by the Sharks in the "Tonight" (Quintet) remained in Spanish.

The cast featured Matt Cavenaugh as Tony, Josefina Scaglione as Maria and Karen Olivo as Anita. Olivo won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress, while Scaglione was nominated for the award for Leading Actress. The cast recording won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. In July 2010, the producers reduced the size of the orchestra, replacing five musicians with an off-stage synthesizer. The production closed on January 2, 2011 after 748 performances and 27 previews. The revival sold 1,074,462 tickets on Broadway over the course of nearly two years.

Other productions

The New York City Center Light Opera Company production opened on April 8, 1964 at the New York City Center and closed May 3, 1964 after a limited engagement of 31 performances. Tony was Don McKay, and Maria was Julia Migenes. It was staged by Gerald Freedman based on Robbins' original concept, and the choreography was re-mounted by Tom Abbott.

The Musical Theater of Lincoln Center and Richard Rodgers production opened at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, on June 24, 1968 and closed on September 7, 1968 after 89 performances. Direction and choreography were reproduced by Lee Theodore, and scenery was by Oliver Smith. Tony was Kurt Peterson and Maria was Victoria Mallory.

A 1987 U.S. tour starred Jack Wagner as Tony, with Valarie Pettiford as Anita and was directed by Alan Johnson. A bus and truck (non-Equity) tour was produced in 1998 by City Vision Theatricals. A national tour, directed by Alan Johnson, was produced in 2002.

A national tour of the 2009 Broadway revival began in October 2010 at the Fisher Theatre in Detroit, Michigan. The cast features Kevin Harris as Tony and Ali Ewoldt as Maria.

An Australian tour 2010–2011 is being performed in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. The cast features Josh Piterman as Tony, Julie Goodwin as Maria, Alinta Chidzey as Anita, Nigel Turner-Carrol as Bernardo and Rohan Browne as Riff.

Regional productions

Several regional opera companies have produced West Side Story. San Diego Civic Light Opera (1983), Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera (1965, 1967, 1974, 1984, 1990, 1999, 2008), and Banff Musical Theatre (1984) were among the first smaller regional companies to produce it. Michigan Opera Theatre was the first major American Opera Company to produce West Side Story in late 1985.

International productions

In 1961, a tour of Israel, Africa and the Near East was mounted. The Japanese Takarazuka Revue has also performed the show twice. It was produced by the Moon Troupe in 1998 and again in 1999 by the Star Troupe. A Hong Kong production was produced in 2000 with Cantonese lyrics, featuring Hong Kong rock star Paul Wong as Tony. It was staged at the outdoor plaza of Hong Kong Cultural Center.

A UK national tour started in 1997 and starred David Habbin as Tony, Katie Knight Adams as Maria and Anna-Jane Casey as Anita. The production was very well received and transferred to London's West End opening at the Prince Edward Theatre in October 1998, transferring to the Prince of Wales Theatre where it closed in January 2000. The production subsequently toured the UK for a second time.

The Austrian Bregenz Festival presented ''West Side Story'' in a German translation by Marcel Prawy in 2003 and 2004, directed by the Francesca Zambello, followed by a German tour. A French language adaptation, translated by Philippe Gobeille, opened in Montreal, Quebec in March 2008. A Philippine version premiered on September 5, 2008 at the Meralco Theatre. It featured Christian Bautista as Tony, Karylle and Joanna Ampil as Maria. In 2008, an adaptation played in Portugal, directed by Filipe La Féria, with the name ''West Side Story – Amor Sem Barreiras'', in the Politeama Theater, in Lisbon, with Ricardo Soler and Rui Andrade playing the character ''Tony'' and Bárbara Barradas and Cátia Tavares playing ''Maria''. ''Anita'' is portrayed by Lúcia Moniz and Anabela.

In 2007, the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, Washington were the only professional theaters in the United States to be granted the production rights to ''West Side Story'' on the 50th anniversary of its Broadway opening. To mark the occasion, the Fulton joined with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra for the first time to supply the musical score under the direction of Maestro Stephen Gunzenhauser. The production, during the Fulton's 155th season, ran from September 6, 2007 to September 30, 2007.

An international tour, directed and choreographed by Joey McKneely and produced by BB Promotion, has been performed for the past several years playing in Tokyo, Paris, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Singapore, São Paulo, Taiwan, China, Italy, Rotterdam and Madrid. This production has starred such performers as Kirsten Rossi/Elisa Cordova/Sofia Escobar/Ali Ewoldt as Maria, Ryan Silverman/Scott Sussman/Chad Hilligus as Tony, Lana Gordon/Oneika Phillips/Desiree Davar as Anita, Spencer Howard/ Brett Leigh (also playing Action)/Denton Tarver as Riff and Emmanuel de Jesús Silva/Marco Santiago/Oscar as Bernardo. Lindsay Dunn, Tanari Vasquez, Adam Lendormon, Marla Mcreynolds, Samuel Ladd, Sean Samuels, Kimberly Wolff (Graziella), Sean Patrick Doyle (Baby John), Jeremy Dumont (Arab), Sarah Dobbs (Anybodys), and Maya Flock (Rosalia) have also rounded out the cast.

In July 2011, a Dubai production was produced by DUCTAC with Michael Rouse as Tony and Elisa Doughty as Maria, Julian Essex-Spurrier as Riff and Shona White as Anita. It ran from July 19 to 23, 2011.

Critical reaction

The creators' innovations in dance, music and theatrical style resulted in strong reactions from the critics. Walter Kerr wrote in the ''New York Herald Tribune'' on September 27, 1957:

The other reviews generally joined in speculation about how the new work would influence the course of musical theatre. Typical was John Chapman's review in the ''New York Daily News'' on September 27, 1957, headed: "West Side Story a Splendid and Super-Modern Musical Drama".

''Time'' magazine found the dance and gang warfare more compelling than the love story and noted that the show's "putting choreography foremost, may prove a milestone in musical-drama history ..."

Score

Orchestration

The score for ''West Side Story'' was orchestrated by Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal following detailed instructions from Bernstein, who then wrote revisions on their manuscript (the original, heavily annotated by Ramin, Kostal and Bernstein himself is in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at Columbia University). The instrumentation is typical for Broadway pit orchestras.

;Symphonic Dances Bernstein later prepared a suite of orchestral music from the show, titled ''Symphonic Dances from West Side Story''. Although the suite is most frequently performed in its entirety, it is occasionally abbreviated. The full sequence is: # Prologue (''Allegro Moderato'') # "Somewhere" (''Adagio'') # Scherzo (''Vivace e Leggiero'') # Mambo (''Meno Presto'') # Cha-Cha (''Andantino Con Grazia'') # Meeting Scene (''Meno Mosso'') # "Cool", Fugue (''Allegretto'') # Rumble (''Molto Allegro'') # Finale (''Adagio'')

Musical analysis

A common musical device in ''West Side Story'' is the tritone (also known as the augmented fourth, or diminished fifth). It is featured throughout the musical, such as the repeated word, Maria, in the song "Maria", and in the overture and all of the fight music ("The Rumble"). The interval is dissonant (that is, it sounds jarring and unsettled and creates musical tension). By embracing the musical disunity created by the tritone, Bernstein is providing a musical representation of the opposing gangs in ''West Side Story''.

Recordings

Recordings of ''West Side Story'' include:

The 1957 original Broadway cast album, with Carol Lawrence as Maria, Larry Kert as Tony and Chita Rivera as Anita.

A 1959 recording by the pianist André Previn comprised jazz versions of eight songs from the musical.

The movie soundtrack, with Marni Nixon singing Maria's role (played in the film by Natalie Wood) and Tony (played in the film by Richard Beymer) sung by Jimmy Bryant. It won the Grammy Award for Best Sound Track Album or Recording of Original Cast from Motion Picture or Television. The 1992 remastered re-release of this album included the "Overture", the "End Credits" music, the complete "Dance at the Gym" and dialogue from the film. The 2004 re-release added the "Intermission" music.

In 1960, Cal Tjader released a jazz version on Fantasy Records. The album was released again in 2002 as Cal Tjader Plays Harold Arlen/West Side Story (double CD).

In 1961, Stan Kenton recorded a jazz version that received a 1962 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance – Large Group (Instrumental).

In 1962, Oscar Peterson and his trio recorded a jazz version, ''West Side Story''.

In 1962, Dave Brubeck recorded jazz versions of selections from the film score on ''Music From West Side Story''.

In 1966, Buddy Rich and his big band performed an arrangement penned by Bill Reddie called ''West Side Story Medley'' for many years and became one of his most popular performances.

In 1969, progressive rock band Yes covered the song "Something's Coming" as the B-side to their first single "Sweetness".

In 1984, Bernstein decided to re-record the musical, conducting his own music for the first time. Generally known as the "operatic version" of ''West Side Story'', it stars Kiri Te Kanawa as Maria, José Carreras as Tony, Tatiana Troyanos as Anita, Kurt Ollmann as Riff, and Marilyn Horne as the offstage voice who sings "Somewhere". It won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 1985 and the recording process was filmed as a documentary. It was made by the BBC for Unitel, Produced by Humphrey Burton and Directed by Christopher Swann. The documentary won the Flaherty BAFTA for documentary direction, a Prix Italia and was nominated for a Prime Time Emmy.

A 1993 recording, the first recording to document the full score including the overture performed by Britain's National Symphony Orchestra using cast members of the 1992 Leicester Haymarket Theatre production.

In 1996, RCA Victor released the tribute album ''The Songs of West Side Story'' featuring new versions of the songs from the musical sung by popular music stars, including: "The Jet Song" sung by Brian Setzer, "A Boy Like That" sung by Selena, "I feel Pretty" sung by Little Richard, two versions of "Somewhere" performed by Aretha Franklin and Phil Collins, "Tonight" sung by Wynonna Judd and Kenny Loggins, "America" sung by Patti LaBelle, Natalie Cole and Sheila E., "I Have a Love" sung by Trisha Yearwood and "Rumble" performed by Chick Corea Elektric Band and Steve Vai's Monsters. Proceeds from the sale of this album go to benefit the Leonard Bernstein Education Through The Arts Fund, the NARAS Foundation and The Leonard Bernstein Center at Nashville, Tennessee.

A 2007 tribute album entitled ''A Place for Us'' marking the 50th anniversary of the show. The album features cover versions previously recorded as well as a new recording of "Tonight" by Kristin Chenoweth and Hugh Panaro.

A 2007 recording was released by Decca Broadway in honor of West Side Story's 50th anniversary. This album stars Hayley Westenra as Maria and Vittorio Grigolo as Tony. The Bernstein Foundation in New York has authorized the recording. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Show Album.

Bernstein recorded the ''Symphonic Dances'' suite with the New York Philharmonic in 1961, and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1983. The ''Symphonic Dances'' have entered the repertoire of many major world orchestras, most recently by the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel. It has been recorded by many orchestras, including the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of Seiji Ozawa.

The 2009 new Broadway cast album, with Josefina Scaglione as Maria, Matt Cavenaugh as Tony and Karen Olivo as Anita won the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album.

Film

On October 18, 1961, a film adaptation of the musical was released. It received praise from critics and the public, and became the second highest grossing film of the year in the United States. The film won ten Academy Awards in its eleven nominated categories, including Best Picture, as well as a special award for Robbins. The film holds the distinction of being the musical film with the most Academy Award wins (10 wins), including Best Picture. The soundtrack album made more money than any other album before it.

Awards and nominations

Original Broadway production

Year	Award Ceremony	Category	Nominee	Result
		Carol Lawrence
	colspan="2"
	Carol Lawrence
	Jerome Robbins
	Irene Sharaff
	Max Goberman

1980 Broadway revival

Year	Award Ceremony	Category	Nominee	Result
	Drama Desk Award		Debbie Allen
	colspan="2"
rowspan="2"	Josie de Guzman
Debbie Allen

2008 West End revival

Year	Award Ceremony	Category	Nominee	Result
		colspan="2"
	Sofia Escobar

2009 Broadway revival

Year	Award Ceremony	Category	Nominee	Result
		colspan="2"
	Karen Olivo
Grammy Award	colspan="2"
	colspan="2"
	Josefina Scaglione
	Karen Olivo
	Howell Binkley

References in popular culture

The popularity of ''West Side Story'' is evidenced by the number and variety of references to it in popular culture, including adaptations, musical pastiches and references in other media. In addition to Bernstein's own ''West Side Story Suite'', the music has been adapted by The Buddy Rich Big Band, which arranged and recorded "West Side Story Medley" on the 1966 album ''Buddy Rich's Swingin' New Big Band'', and The Stan Kenton Orchestra, which recorded Johnny Richards' 1961 ''Kenton's West Side Story'', an album of jazz orchestrations based on the Bernstein scores. It won the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Recording by a Large Group.

Popular artists have recorded songs from the musical: :Selena, the Tejano singer, recorded "A Boy Like That" in 1995, seven days before her death. In 1996, that song was released as the first single from the album ''The Songs of West Side Story''. This album also included such diverse artists as Little Richard ("I Feel Pretty"), Trisha Yearwood ("I Have a Love") and Salt-n-Pepa, Def Jef, Lisa Lopes, the Jerky Boys, and Paul Rodriguez all collaborating on "Gee, Officer Krupke".

:"America" has been covered by The Tijuana Brass in an upbeat version on an early album; 1960s progressive rock band, The Nice, recorded it as an instrumental protest song and Keith Emerson continued to perform it in concerts with his later groups, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and 3. The song was also sampled at the beginning of the Yes cover of Paul Simon's ''America'' and at the beginning of the Metallica song "Don't Tread on Me", from their ''Black Album'' (1991). Yes also released "Something's Coming" as a single.

:Alice Cooper incorporated the "Jets Song" into "Gutter Cat vs. The Jets" on their School's Out album. A previous album was titled, 'Easy Action', a line spoken during the West Side Story song, 'Cool'.

:P. J. Proby, Len Barry, and Barbra Streisand each had hit singles with versions of the song "Somewhere", while Johnny Mathis, Roger Williams and again P. J. Proby did likewise with "Maria". Ferrante & Teicher scored a top ten hit with "Tonight"; Eddie Fisher also scored a chart hit with the song.

:Michael Jackson's life had been significantly influenced by ''West Side Story'', and he made a tribute to it in "Beat It" and in the "Bad" video. According to a ''West Side Story'' cast member David Winters, who met and befriended Jackson while choreographing the 1971 Diana Ross TV Special "Diana!", (which was also Jackson's first solo debut outside of The Jackson 5), Jackson watched ''West Side Story'' almost every week and it was his favorite film.

:Tom Waits opened his 1978 album ''Blue Valentine'' with "Somewhere"; and 19 years later (1997), British singing group The Pet Shop Boys recorded their version of the song, using elements of "I Feel Pretty". During their 1997 series of concerts at the Savoy Theatre, London, they used an extended version of "Somewhere" that started with "One Hand, One Heart".

The show has inspired many varied musical uses. For example, ''West Side Story'' has become a popular show for drum and bugle corps and marching bands. Many pastiches and parodies of the show or its music have made their way into popular media. In particular, the gang war has been spoofed frequently.

''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' extensively referenced ''West Side Story'' in the Season 7 episode "Officer Krupke."

David Winters, who starred in both the original Broadway production and the motion picture was greatly influenced by ''West Side Story'' and had gone on to choreograph, direct and produce hundreds of projects with such stars as Barbra Streisand and Elvis Presley in music and film. The influence that ''West Side Story'' had on him can be seen in his choreography and in many of his future projects. Also through a ''West Side Story'' production, in Los Angeles, circa 1962, Winters met and befriended Teri Garr and Antonia Basilotta (better known as Toni Basil), both of whom would figure prominently in Winters' life in the future as they would become two of his best dancers when he became a choreographer.

The first act of the ''Batman: The Brave and the Bold'' episode "Mayhem of the Music Meister!" is an homage to ''West Side Story'', as the Meister first makes heroes and villains dance together in the fashion of "Dance at the Gym", then attack Batman in a Robbins choreography mixing pirouettes and finger-snapping with punches and kicks.

In 1995, punk rock band Schlong released "Punk Side Story" on Hopeless Records. The album was a re-recording of the original soundtrack done in various punk styles, including hardcore, street punk, and third wave ska.

In 2003, the song "I Feel Pretty" appears in the slapstick comedy film ''Anger Management'' starring and briefly covered by Dave Buznik (played by Adam Sandler) and Dr. Buddy Rydell (played by Jack Nicholson). It can also be heard at the end of this movie reprised with the other cast members.

Carlos Santana's song Maria Maria references the musical in its lyrics.

Toronto Art Rock Band "Krupke", takes its name from the song "Gee Officer Krupke".

Photographer Mark Seliger re-created scenes from the film for magazine ''Vanity Fair'' called ''West Side Story Revisited'', using Camilla Belle as Maria, Ben Barnes as Tony, Jennifer Lopez as Anita, Rodrigo Santoro as Bernardo and Chris Evans as Riff. Portraying the Sharks are Minka Kelly, Jay Hernandez, Natalie Martinez, Brandon T. Jackson and Melonie Diaz. Portraying the Jets are Ashley Tisdale, Sean Faris, Shane Lynch, Robert Pattinson, Cam Gigandet, Trilby Glover, Brittany Snow and Drake Bell.

Pixar animator Aaron Hartline used the first meeting between Tony and Maria as inspiration for the moment when Ken meets Barbie in ''Toy Story 3''.

The cast of ''Glee'' has done a mash-up with the songs "I Feel Pretty" and the TLC's song "Unpretty" in the episode "Born This Way"

Notes

Further reading

Bauch, Marc (2001) ''Themes and Topics of the American Musical after World War II'' Tectum Verlag, Marburg, Germany, ISBN 3-8288-1141-8 described here

Bauch, Marc (2003) ''The American Musical'' Tectum Verlag, Marburg, Germany, ISBN 3-8288-8458-X described here

Laurents, Arthur (2009) ''Mainly on directing : Gypsy, West Side Story, and other musicals'' Alfred A. Knopf, New York, ISBN 978-0-307-27088-7

Simeone, Nigel (2009) ''Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story'' Ashgate, Farnham, ISBN 0-7546-6484-8

Vaill, A. (2006) ''Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins'' Broadway Books, New York, ISBN 0-7679-0420-6

Wells, Elizabeth A. (2010) ''West Side Story: Cultural Perspectives on an American Musical'' Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland, ISBN 978-0-8108-7666-8

Williams, Mary E. (editor) (2001) ''Readings on West Side Story'' Greenhaven Press, San Diego, California, ISBN 0-7377-0694-5

External links

The Official ''West Side Story'' website

The Official ''West Side Story'' 50th Anniversary World Tour website

''West Side Story'' at The Stephen sondheim Reference Guide

''West Side Story'' Detailed Character Descriptions, stageagent.com

Twelve Jazz Versions of ''West Side Story'' at Jazz.com

MTI shows Listing

2002 Interview with Chita Rivera on ''West Side Story'' at Sondheim Review

"SONDHEIM 101: 'West Side Story'" by Leonard Jacobs from Sondheim Review, Fall 2007

West Side Story, Musical

Category:1957 musicals Category:Broadway musicals Category:West End musicals Category:Musicals by Leonard Bernstein Category:Musicals based on plays Category:Plays and musicals based on Romeo and Juliet Category:Musicals by Stephen Sondheim Category:Plays set in New York City

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Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim. According to ''The New York Times'', he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history."

His fame derived from his long tenure as the music director of the New York Philharmonic, from his conducting of concerts with most of the world's leading orchestras, and from his music for ''West Side Story'', as well as ''Candide'', ''Wonderful Town'', ''On the Town'' and his own ''Mass''.

Bernstein was also the first conductor to give numerous television lectures on classical music, starting in 1954, continuing until his death. In addition, he was a skilled pianist, often conducting while performing piano concertos simultaneously.

As a composer he was prolific, writing symphonies, ballet music, operas, chamber music, pieces for the piano, other orchestral and choral works, and other concert and incidental music, but the tremendous success of ''West Side Story'' remained unequaled by his other compositions.

Biography

Early life

He was born Louis Bernstein in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the son of Ukrainian Jewish parents Jennie (née Resnick) and Samuel Joseph Bernstein, a hair-dressing supplies wholesaler originating from Rovno (now Ukraine). Despite his surname he was not related to film composer Elmer Bernstein. His family spent their summers at their vacation home in Sharon, Massachusetts. His grandmother insisted that his first name be ''Louis'', but his parents always called him ''Leonard'', which they preferred. He officially changed his name to ''Leonard'' when he was fifteen, shortly after his grandmother's death. However to his friends and many others he was simply known as "Lenny."

His father, Sam Bernstein, was a businessman and owner of a bookstore in downtown Lawrence; it is standing today on the corners of Amesbury and Essex Streets. Sam initially opposed young Leonard's interest in music. Despite this, the elder Bernstein took him to orchestra concerts in his teenage years and eventually supported his music education. At a very young age, Bernstein listened to a piano performance and was immediately captivated; he subsequently began learning the piano seriously when the family acquired his cousin Lillian Goldman's unwanted piano. As a child, Bernstein attended the Garrison Grammar School and Boston Latin School. As a child he was very close to his younger sister Shirley, and would often play entire operas or Beethoven symphonies with her at the piano. He had a variety of piano teachers in his youth including Helen Coates who later became his secretary.

After graduation from Boston Latin School in 1935, Bernstein attended Harvard University, where he studied music with, amongst others, Edward Burlingame Hill and Walter Piston, the author of many harmony and counterpoint textbooks. Although he majored in music with a final year thesis (1939) entitled ''"The Absorption of Race Elements into American Music"'' (reproduced in his book ''Findings''), Bernstein's main intellectual influence at Harvard was probably the aesthetics Professor David Prall, whose multidisciplinary outlook on the arts Bernstein shared for the rest of his life. One of his friends at Harvard was philosopher Donald Davidson, with whom he played piano four hands. Bernstein wrote and conducted the musical score for the production Davidson mounted of Aristophanes' play ''The Birds'' in the original Greek. Bernstein reused some of this music in the ballet ''Fancy Free''. During his time at Harvard he was briefly an accompanist for the Harvard Glee Club. Bernstein also mounted a student production of ''The Cradle Will Rock'' directing its action from the piano as the composer Marc Blitzstein had done at the premiere. Blitzstein, who heard about the production, subsequently became a friend and influence (both musically and politically) on Bernstein.

Bernstein also met the conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos at this time. Although he never taught Bernstein, Mitropoulos's charisma and power as a musician was a major influence on Bernstein's eventual decision to take up conducting. Mitropoulos was not stylistically that similar to Bernstein, but he probably influenced some of Bernstein's later habits such as his conducting from the keyboard, his initial practice of conducting without a baton and perhaps his interest in Mahler. The other important influence that Bernstein first met during his Harvard years was composer Aaron Copland, whom he met at a concert and then at a party afterwards on Copland's Birthday in 1938. At the party Bernstein played Copland's ''Piano Variations'', a thorny work Bernstein loved without knowing anything about its composer until that evening. Although he was not formally Copland's student as such, Bernstein would regularly seek advice from Copland in the following years about his own compositions and would often cite him as "his only real composition teacher".

After completing his studies at Harvard in 1939 (graduating with a B.A. ''cum laude''), he enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. During his time at Curtis, Bernstein studied conducting with Fritz Reiner (who anecdotally is said to have given Bernstein the only "A grade" he ever awarded), piano with Isabelle Vengerova, orchestration with Randall Thompson, counterpoint with Richard Stöhr, and score reading with Renée Longy Miquelle. Unlike his years at Harvard, Bernstein appears to not to have much enjoyed the formal training environment of Curtis, although often in later life he would mention Reiner when discussing his important teachers.

1940–1950

After he left Curtis, Bernstein lived in New York. He shared a flat with his friend Adolph Green and often accompanied Green, Betty Comden and Judy Holiday in a comedy troupe called The Reviewers who performed in Greenwich Village. He took jobs with a music publisher, transcribing music or producing arrangements under the pseudonym Lenny Amber (the German meaning of his name in English). During this period in New York City, Bernstein enjoyed an exuberant social life that included relationships with both men and women. In 1940, Bernstein began his study at the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer institute, Tanglewood, in the conducting class of the orchestra's conductor, Serge Koussevitzky.

Bernstein's friendships with Copland (who was very close to Koussevitsky) and Mitropoulos were important in him being recommended for a place in the class. Other students in the class included Lukas Foss who also became a lifelong friend. Koussevitsky perhaps did not teach Bernstein much basic conducting technique (which he had already developed under Reiner), but instead became a sort of father figure to him, and was perhaps the major influence on Bernstein's emotional way of interpreting music. Bernstein later became Koussevitzky's conducting assistant and would later dedicate his ''second symphony, "The Age of Anxiety''" to him.

On November 14, 1943, having recently been appointed assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, he made his major conducting debut at sudden notice —and without any rehearsal—after Bruno Walter came down with the flu. The next day, ''The New York Times'' carried the story on their front page and their editorial remarked, "It's a good American success story. The warm, friendly triumph of it filled Carnegie Hall and spread far over the air waves." He became instantly famous because the concert was nationally broadcast, and afterwards started to appear as a guest conductor with many US orchestras. The program included works by Schumann, Miklos Rozsa, Wagner and Richard Strauss's ''Don Quixote'' with soloist Joseph Schuster, solo cellist of the orchestra. Before the concert Bernstein briefly spoke to Bruno Walter who discussed particular difficulties in the works he was to perform. It is possible to hear this concert (apart from the Wagner work) on a recording of the CBS radio broadcast that has been issued on CD by the orchestra. From 1945–47 Bernstein was the Music Director of the New York City Symphony Orchestra which had been founded the previous year by the conductor Leopold Stokowski. The orchestra (with support from the Mayor) was aimed at a different audience with more modern programs and cheaper tickets than the New York Philharmonic.

In addition to becoming known as a conductor, Bernstein also emerged as a composer in the same period. In January 1944 he conducted the premiere of his ''Jeremiah Symphony'' in Pittsburgh. His score to the ballet ''Fancy Free'' choreographed by Jerome Robbins opened in New York in April 1944 and this was later developed into the musical ''On the Town'' with lyrics by Comden and Green that opened on Broadway in December 1944.

After World War II, Bernstein's career on the international stage began to flourish. In 1946 he made his first trip to Europe conducting various orchestras and recorded Ravel's ''Piano Concerto in G'' as soloist and conductor with the Philharmonia Orchestra. In 1946, he conducted opera for the first time, with the American première at Tanglewood of Benjamin Britten's ''Peter Grimes,'' which had been a Koussevitzky commission. That same year, Arturo Toscanini invited Bernstein to guest conduct two concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, one of which again featured Bernstein as soloist in the Ravel concerto.

In 1947, Bernstein conducted in Tel Aviv for the first time, beginning a life-long association with Israel. The next year he conducted an open air concert for troops at Beersheba in the middle of the desert during the Arab-Israeli war. In 1957, he conducted the inaugural concert of the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv; he subsequently made many recordings there. In 1967, he conducted a concert on Mt. Scopus to commemorate the reunification of Jerusalem. During the 1970s, Bernstein recorded his symphonies and other works with the Israel Philharmonic for Deutsche Grammophon.

In 1949, he conducted the world première of the ''Turangalîla-Symphonie'' by Olivier Messiaen, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Part of the rehearsal for the concert was released on CD by the orchestra. When Koussevitzky died two years later, Bernstein became head of the orchestral and conducting departments at Tanglewood, holding this position for many years.

1951–1959

After much personal struggle and a turbulent on-off engagement, he married Chilean actress Felicia Cohn Montealegre on September 10, 1951. One suggestion is that he chose to marry partly to dispel rumors about his private life to help secure a major conducting appointment, following advice from his mentor Dimitri Mitropoulos about the conservative nature of orchestra boards. Bernstein's sexuality has been a matter of speculation and debate. Arthur Laurents (Bernstein's collaborator in ''West Side Story'') said that Bernstein was "a gay man who got married. He wasn't conflicted about it at all. He was just gay." Shirley Rhoades Perle, another friend of Bernstein's, said that she thought "he required men sexually and women emotionally." But the early years of his marriage seem to have been happy, and no-one has suggested they didn't love one another. They had three children, Jamie, Alexander, and later Nina. There are reports though that Bernstein did sometimes have brief extramarital liaisons with young men, which several family friends have said his wife knew about.

In 1951, Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic in the world première of the Symphony No. 2 of Charles Ives which was written around half a century earlier but never performed. Throughout his career Bernstein often talked about the music of Ives who died in 1954. The composer, old and frail, was unable (or some reports say "unwilling") to attend the concert, but his wife attended. He reportedly listened to a radio broadcast of it on a radio in his kitchen some days later. A recording of the "premiere" was released in a 10 CD box set ''Bernstein LIVE'' by the orchestra, but the notes indicate it was a repeat performance from three days later, and this is perhaps what Ives heard. In any case reports also differ on Ives' exact reaction, but some suggest he was thrilled and danced a little jig. Bernstein recorded the 2nd symphony with the orchestra in 1958 for Columbia and 1987 for Deutsche Grammophon. There is also a 1987 performance with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra available on DVD.

Bernstein was a visiting music professor from 1951–56 at Brandeis University and he founded the Creative Arts Festival there in 1952. He conducted various productions at the first festival including the premiere of his opera ''Trouble in Tahiti'' and Blitzstein's English version of Kurt Weill's ''Threepenny Opera''. The festival was named after him in 2005, becoming the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts. In 1953 he was the first US conductor to appear at La Scala in Milan, conducting Maria Callas in Cherubini's ''Medea''. The same year he produced his score to the musical ''Wonderful Town'' at very short notice, working again with old friends Comden and Green who wrote the lyrics.

In 1954 Bernstein made the first of his television lectures for the CBS arts program Omnibus. The live lecture, entitled "Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony", involved Bernstein explaining the work with the aid of musicians from the former NBC Symphony Orchestra (recently renamed the "Symphony of the Air") and a giant page of the score covering the floor. Bernstein subsequently performed concerts with the orchestra and recorded his Serenade for Violin with Isaac Stern. Further Omnibus lectures followed in 1955-8 (later on ABC and then NBC) covering Jazz, Conducting, American Musical Comedy, Modern Music, J.S. Bach and Grand Opera. These programs were made available in the USA in a DVD set in 2010.

In late 1956 Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic in concerts that were to have been conducted by Guido Cantelli, who had tragically been killed in an air crash in Paris. This was the first time Bernstein had conducted the orchestra in subscription concerts since 1951. Partly due to these appearances, Bernstein was named the Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in 1957, replacing Dimitri Mitropoulos. He began his tenure in that position in 1958 having held the post jointly with Mitropoulos in 1957-8. In 1958 Bernstein and Mitropoulos took the New York Philharmonic on tour to South America. In his first season in sole charge Bernstein included a season-long survey of American classical music. Themed-programming of this sort was fairly novel at that time compared to the present day. Bernstein held the Music Directorship until 1969 (with a sabbatical in 1965) although he continued to conduct and make recordings with the orchestra for the rest of his life and was appointed "Laureate Conductor".

He became a well-known figure in the United States through his series of fifty-three televised Young People's Concerts for CBS, which grew out of his ''Omnibus'' programs. His first Young People's Concert was televised a few weeks after his tenure as principal conductor of the New York Philharmonic began. He became as famous for his educational work in those concerts as for his conducting. The Bernstein Young People's Concerts were the first, and probably the most influential series of music appreciation programs ever produced on television, and were highly acclaimed by critics. Some of Bernstein's music lectures were released on records, with at least one winning a Grammy award. The programmes were shown in many countries around the world, often with Bernstein dubbed into other languages. Twenty-five of them were released on DVD by Kultur Video.

Prior to taking over the New York Philharmonic Bernstein produced the music for two shows. The first was for the operetta Candide which was first performed in 1956 with a libretto by Lillian Hellman based on Voltaire's novel. The second was Bernstein's collaboration with the choreographer Jerome Robbins, the writer Arthur Laurents and the lyricist Stephen Sondheim to produce the musical ''West Side Story''. The first three had worked on it intermittently since Robbins first suggested the idea in 1949. Finally, with the addition of Sondheim to the team and a period of concentrated effort, it received its Broadway premiere in 1957 and has since proven to be Bernstein's most popular and enduring score.

In 1959, he took the New York Philharmonic on a tour of Europe and the Soviet Union, portions of which were filmed by CBS. A highlight of the tour was Bernstein's performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, in the presence of the composer, who came on stage at the end to congratulate Bernstein and the musicians. In October, when Bernstein and the orchestra returned to the US, they recorded the symphony for Columbia. He recorded it for a second time with the orchestra on tour in Japan in 1979. Bernstein seems to have limited himself to only conducting certain Shostakovich symphonies: 1, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 14. He made two recordings of Shostakovich's ''Leningrad Symphony,'' one with the New York Philharmonic in the 1960s and another one recorded live in 1988 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the only recording he ever made with them (along with Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1).

1960–1969

In 1960 Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic held a Mahler Festival to mark the centenary of the composer's birth. Bernstein, Walter and Mitropoulos conducted performances. The composer's widow, Alma attended some of Bernstein's rehearsals. In 1960 Bernstein also made his first commercial recording of a Mahler symphony (the fourth) and over the next seven years he made the first complete cycle of recordings of all nine of Mahler's completed symphonies. (All featured the New York Philharmonic except the 8th Symphony which was recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra following a concert in the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1966.) The success of these recordings, along with Bernstein's concert performances and television talks, was an important part of the revival of interest in Mahler in the 1960s, especially in the US.

Other non-US composers that Bernstein championed to some extent at the time include the Danish composer Carl Nielsen (who was perhaps then only a little known in the US) and Jean Sibelius, whose popularity had perhaps by then started to fade. Bernstein eventually recorded a complete cycle in New York of Sibelius's symphonies and three of Nielsen's symphonies (Nos. 2, 4, and 5), as well as conducting recordings of his violin, clarinet and flute concertos. He also recorded Nielsen's 3rd Symphony with the Royal Danish Orchestra after a critically acclaimed public performance in Denmark. Bernstein championed US composers, especially those that he was close to like Aaron Copland, William Schuman and David Diamond. He also started to more extensively record his own compositions for Columbia Records. This included his 3 symphonies, his ballets and the ''Symphonic Dances'' from ''West Side Story'' with the New York Philharmonic. He also conducted an LP of his 1944 musical ''On The Town,'' the first (almost) complete recording of the original featuring several members of the original Broadway cast, including Betty Comden and Adolph Green. (The 1949 film version only contains four of Bernstein's original numbers.)

In one oft-reported incident, in April 1962 Bernstein appeared on stage before a performance of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor with the pianist Glenn Gould. During rehearsals, Gould had argued for tempi much broader than normal, which did not reflect Bernstein's concept of the music. Bernstein gave a brief address to the audience starting with "Don't be frightened; Mr Gould is here..." and going on to "In a concerto, who is the boss (audience laughter)—the soloist or the conductor?" (Audience laughter grows louder). The answer is, of course, sometimes the one and sometimes the other, depending on the people involved." This speech was subsequently interpreted by Harold C. Schonberg, music critic for ''The New York Times'', as abdication of personal responsibility and an attack on Gould, whose performance Schonberg went on to criticize heavily. Bernstein always denied that this had been his intent and has stated that he made these remarks with Gould's blessing. Throughout his life, he professed admiration and friendship for Gould. Schonberg was often (though not always) harshly critical of Bernstein as a conductor during his tenure as Music Director. However his views were not shared by the audiences (with many full houses) and probably not by the musicians themselves (who had greater financial security arising from Bernstein's many TV and recording activities amongst other things).

In 1962 the New York Philharmonic moved from Carnegie Hall to Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) in the new Lincoln Center. The move was not without controversy because of acoustic problems with the new hall. Bernstein conducted the gala opening concert featuring vocal works by Mahler, Beethoven and Vaughan Williams, and the premiere of Aaron Copland's ''Connotations'', a serial-work that was merely politely received. During the interval Bernstein kissed the cheek of the President's wife Jacqueline Kennedy, a break with protocol that was commented on at the time. In 1961 Bernstein had conducted at President John F. Kennedy's pre-inaugural gala, and he was an occasional guest in the Kennedy White House. He also conducted at the funeral mass in 1968 for the late President Kennedy's brother Robert Kennedy.

In 1964 Bernstein conducted Franco Zeffirelli's production of Verdi's ''Falstaff'' at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In 1966 he made his debut at the Vienna State Opera conducting Luchino Visconti's production of the same opera with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Falstaff. During his time in Vienna he also recorded the opera for Columbia Records and conducted his first subscription concert with the Vienna Philharmonic (which is made up of players from the Vienna State Opera) featuring Mahler's ''Das Lied von der Erde'' with Fischer-Dieskau and James King. He returned to the State Opera in 1968 for a production of Der Rosenkavalier and in 1970 for Otto Schenk's production of Beethoven's ''Fidelio''. Sixteen years later, at the State Opera, Bernstein conducted his sequel to ''Trouble in Tahiti,'' ''A Quiet Place.'' with the ORF orchestra. Bernstein's final farewell to the State Opera happened accidentally in 1989: following a performance of Modest Mussorgsky's ''Khovanshchina'', he unexpectedly entered the stage and embraced conductor Claudio Abbado in front of a cheering audience.

With his commitment to the New York Philharmonic and his many other activities, Bernstein had little time for composition during the 1960s. The two major works he produced at this time were his ''Kaddish Symphony'' dedicated to the recently assassinated President John F. Kennedy and the ''Chichester Psalms'' which he produced during a sabbatical year he took from the Philharmonic in 1965 to concentrate on composition. To try and have more time for composition was probably a major factor in his decision to step down as Music Director of the Philharmonic in 1969, and to never accept such as position anywhere again.

1970–1979

After stepping down from the New York Philharmonic, Bernstein continued to appear with them in most years until his death, and he toured with them to Europe in 1976 and to Asia in 1979. He also strengthened his relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra – he conducted all nine completed Mahler symphonies with them (plus the adagio from the 10th) in the period from 1967–76. All of these were filmed for Unitel with the exception of the 1967 Mahler 2nd, which instead Bernstein filmed with the London Symphony Orchestra in Ely Cathedral in 1973. In the late 1970s Bernstein conducted a complete Beethoven symphony cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic, and cycles of Brahms and Schumann were to follow in the 1980s. Other orchestras he conducted on numerous occasions in the 1970s include the Israel Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

In 1970 Bernstein wrote and narrated a ninety-minute program filmed on location in and around Vienna as a celebration of Beethoven's 200th birthday. It featured parts of Bernstein's rehearsals and performance for the Otto Schenk production of ''Fidelio'', Bernstein playing the 1st piano concerto and the Ninth Symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic and the young Placido Domingo amongst the soloists. The program was first telecast in 1970 on Austrian and British television, and then on CBS in the US on Christmas Eve 1971. The show, originally entitled ''Beethoven's Birthday: A Celebration in Vienna,'' won an Emmy and was issued on DVD in 2005.

Like many of his friends and colleagues, Bernstein had been involved in various left wing causes and organizations since the 1940s. He was blacklisted by the US State Department and CBS in the early 1950s, but unlike others his career was not greatly affected, and he was never required to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. His political life received substantial press coverage though in 1970 due to a gathering hosted at his Manhattan apartment. Bernstein and his wife held the event seeking to raise awareness and money for the defense of several members of the Black Panther Party against a variety of charges. ''The New York Times'' initially covered the gathering as a lifestyle item, but later posted an editorial harshly unfavorable to Bernstein following generally negative reaction to the widely publicized story. This reaction culminated in June 1970 with the appearance of "Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's", an essay by satirist Tom Wolfe featured on the cover of the ''New York'' Magazine. The article contrasted the Bernsteins' comfortable lifestyle in one of the world's most expensive neighborhoods with the anti-establishment politics of the Black Panthers. It led to the popularization of "radical chic" as a critical term. Both Bernstein and his wife Felicia responded to the criticism, arguing that they were motivated not by a shallow desire to express fashionable sympathy but by their concern for civil liberties.

Bernstein's major compositions during the 1970s were probably his ''MASS: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers''; his score for the ballet ''Dybbuk''; his orchestral vocal work ''Songfest''; and his US bicentenary musical ''1600 Pennsylvania Avenue'' written with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner which was his first real theatrical flop, and last original broadway show. The world premiere of Bernstein's ''MASS'' took place on September 8, 1971. Commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., it was partly intended as an anti-war statement. Hastily written in places, the work represented a fusion not only of different religious traditions (Latin liturgy, Hebrew prayer and plenty of contemporary English lyrics) but also of different musical styles including classical and rock music. It was originally a target of criticism from the Roman Catholic Church on the one hand, and contemporary music critics who objected to its Broadway/populist elements on the other. In the present day it is perhaps seen as less blasphemous and more a piece of its era – in 2000 it was even performed in the Vatican.

In 1972 Bernstein recorded Bizet's ''Carmen,'' with Marilyn Horne in the title role and James McCracken as Don Jose, after leading several stage performances of the opera at the Metropolitan Opera. The recording was one of the first in stereo to use the original spoken dialogue between the sung portions of the opera, rather than the musical recitatives that were composed by Ernest Guiraud after Bizet's death. The recording was Bernstein's first for Deutsche Grammophon and won a Grammy.

Bernstein was appointed in 1973 to the Charles Eliot Norton Chair as Professor of Poetry at his alma mater, Harvard University, and delivered a series of six televised lectures on music with musical examples played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Taking the title from a Charles Ives work, he called the series "The Unanswered Question"; it was a set of interdisciplinary lectures in which he borrowed terminology from contemporary linguistics to analyze and compare musical construction to language. The lectures are presently available in both book and DVD form. Noam Chomsky wrote in 2007 on the Znet forums about the linguistic aspects of the lecture: "I spent some time with Bernstein during the preparation and performance of the lectures. My feeling was that he was onto something, but I couldn't really judge how significant it was."

A major period of upheaval in Bernstein's personal life began in 1976 when he took the decision that he could no longer repress his homosexuality and he left his wife Felicia for a period to live with the writer Tom Cothran. The next year she was diagnosed with lung cancer and eventually Bernstein moved back in with her and cared for her until she died on June 16, 1978. Cothran himself died of AIDS in 1981. Bernstein is reported to have often spoken of his terrible guilt over his wife's death. Most biographies of Bernstein describe that his lifestyle became more excessive and his personal behavior sometimes cruder after her death. However his public standing and many of his close friendships appear to have remained unaffected, and he resumed his busy schedule of musical activity.

In 1978, Bernstein return to the Vienna State Opera to conduct a revival of the Otto Schenk production of ''Fidelio,'' now featuring Gundula Janowitz and Rene Kollo in the lead roles. At the same time, Bernstein made a studio recording of the opera for Deutsche Grammophon and the opera itself was filmed by Unitel and released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon in late 2006. In May 1978, the Israel Philharmonic played two US concerts under his direction to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Orchestra under that name. On consecutive nights, the Orchestra, with the Choral Arts Society of Washington, performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and at Carnegie Hall in New York.

In 1979, Bernstein conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for the first and only time, in two charity concerts for Amnesty International involving performances of Mahler's Ninth Symphony. The invitation for the concerts had come from the orchestra and not from its principal conductor Herbert von Karajan. There has been speculation about why Karajan never invited Bernstein to conduct his orchestra. (Karajan did conduct the New York Philharmonic during Bernstein's tenure.) The full reasons will probably never be known – reports suggest they were on friendly terms when they met, but sometimes practiced a little mutual one-upmanship. One of the concerts was broadcast on radio and was posthumously released on CD by Deutsche Grammophon.

1980–1990

Bernstein received the Kennedy Center Honors award in 1980. For the rest of the 1980s he continued to conduct, teach, compose and produce the occasional TV documentary. His most significant compositions of the decade were probably his opera ''A Quiet Place'' which he wrote with Stephen Wadsworth and which premiered (in its original version) in Houston in 1983; his ''Divertimento for Orchestra''; his ''Halil'' for flute and orchestra, his ''Concerto for Orchestra "Jubilee Games"''; and his song cycle ''Arias and Barcarolles'', which was named after a comment President Dwight D. Eisenhower had made to him in the 1950s.

In 1982 in the US, PBS aired an 11-part series of Bernstein's late 1970s films for Unitel of the Vienna Philharmonic playing all nine Beethoven symphonies and various other works. Bernstein gave spoken introduction and actor Maximilian Schell was also featured on the programs, reading from Beethoven's letters. The original films have since been released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon. In addition to conducting in New York, Vienna and Israel, Bernstein was a regular guest conductor of other orchestras in the 1980s. These included the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam with whom he recorded Mahler's First, Fourth, and Ninth Symphonies amongst other works; the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich with whom he recorded Wagner's ''Tristan und Isolde'', Haydn's ''Creation'', Mozart's ''Requiem'' and ''Mass in C Minor''; and the orchestra of Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome with whom he recorded some Debussy and Puccini's ''La Boheme''.

In 1982, he and Ernest Fleischmann founded the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute as a summer training academy along the lines of Tanglewood. Bernstein served as Artistic Director and taught conducting there until 1984. Around the same time he performed and recorded some of his own works with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Deutsche Grammophon. Bernstein was also at the time a committed supporter of Nuclear Disarmament. In 1985 he took the European Community Youth Orchestra in a "Journey for Peace" tour around Europe and to Japan.

In 1985, he conducted a recording of ''West Side Story'', the first time he had conducted the entire work. The recording, featuring what some critics felt were miscast opera singers such as Kiri Te Kanawa, José Carreras, and Tatiana Troyanos in the leading roles, was nevertheless an international bestseller. A TV documentary showing the making of the recording was made at the same time and is available on DVD.

In his later years, Bernstein's life and work was celebrated around the world (as it has been since his death). The Israel Philharmonic celebrated his involvement with them at Festivals in Israel and Austria in 1977. In 1986 the London Symphony Orchestra mounted a Bernstein Festival in London with one concert that Bernstein himself conducted attended by the Queen. In 1988 Bernstein's 70th Birthday was celebrated by a lavish televised gala at Tanglewood featuring many performers who had worked with him over the years.

In December 1989 Bernstein conducted live performances and recorded in the studio his operetta ''Candide'' with the London Symphony Orchestra. The recording starred Jerry Hadley, June Anderson, Adolph Green and Christa Ludwig in the leading roles. The use of opera singers in some roles perhaps fitted the style of operetta better than some critics had thought was the case for West Side Story, and the recording (released posthumously in 1991) was universally praised. One of the live concerts from the Barbican Centre in London is available on DVD. ''Candide'' had had a troubled history, with many re-writes and writers involved. Bernstein's concert and recording were based on a "final" version that had been first performed by Scottish Opera in 1988. The opening night (which Bernstein attended in Glasgow) was conducted by Bernstein's former student John Mauceri.

On December 25, 1989, Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in East Berlin's Schauspielhaus (Playhouse) as part of a celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. He had conducted the same work in West Berlin the previous day. The concert was broadcast live in more than twenty countries to an estimated audience of 100 million people. For the occasion, Bernstein reworded Friedrich Schiller's text of the ''Ode to Joy,'' substituting the word ''Freiheit'' (freedom) for ''Freude'' (joy). Bernstein, in his spoken introduction said that they had "taken the liberty" of doing this because of a "most likely phony" story, apparently believed in some quarters, that Schiller wrote an "Ode to Freedom" that is now presumed lost. Bernstein added, "I'm sure that Beethoven would have given us his blessing."

In the summer of 1990, Bernstein and Michael Tilson Thomas founded the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. Like his earlier activity in Los Angeles, this was a summer training school for musicians modeled on Tanglewood, and is still in existence. Bernstein was already at this time suffering from the lung disease that would lead to his death. In his opening address Bernstein said that he had decided to devote what time he had left to education. A video showing Bernstein speaking and rehearsing at the first Festival is available on DVD in Japan.

Bernstein made his final performance as a conductor at Tanglewood on August 19, 1990, with the Boston Symphony playing Benjamin Britten's "Four Sea Interludes" from ''Peter Grimes'', and Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. He suffered a coughing fit in the middle of the Beethoven performance which almost caused the concert to break down. The concert was later issued on CD by Deutsche Grammophon.

He announced his retirement from conducting on October 9, 1990, and died of pneumonia and a pleural tumor five days later. He was 72 years old. A longtime heavy smoker, he had battled emphysema from his mid-50s. On the day of his funeral procession through the streets of Manhattan, construction workers removed their hats and waved, yelling "Goodbye, Lenny." Bernstein is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York next to his wife and with a copy of Mahler's Fifth lying across his heart.

Influence and characteristics as a conductor

Bernstein was one of the major figures in orchestral conducting in the second half of the 20th century. He was held in high regard amongst many musicians, including the members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, evidenced by his honorary membership; the London Symphony Orchestra, of which he was President; and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he appeared regularly as guest conductor. He was probably the main conductor from the 1960s onwards who acquired a sort of superstar status similar to that of Herbert von Karajan, although unlike Karajan he conducted relatively little opera and part of Bernstein's fame was based on his role as a composer. As the first American-born music director of the New York Philharmonic, his rise to prominence was a factor in overcoming the perception of the time that the top conductors were necessarily trained in Europe.

Bernstein's conducting was characterized by extremes of emotion with the rhythmic pulse of the music conveyed visually through his balletic podium manner. Musicians often reported that his manner in rehearsal was the same as in concert. As he got older his performances tended to be overlaid to a greater extent with a personal expressiveness which often divided critical opinion. Extreme examples of this style can be found in his Deutsche Grammophon recordings of Nimrod from Elgar's ''Enigma Variations'' (1982), the end of Mahler's 9th Symphony (1985), and the finale of Tchaikovsky's ''Pathetique Symphony'' (1986), where in each case the tempos are well below those typically chosen.

Bernstein performed a wide repertoire from the baroque era to the 20th century, although perhaps from the 1970s onwards he tended to focus more on music from the romantic era. He was considered especially accomplished with the works of Gustav Mahler and with American composers in general, including George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, Roy Harris, William Schuman, and of course himself. Some of his recordings of works by these composers would likely appear on many music critics' lists of recommended recordings. A list of his other well-thought-of recordings would probably include individual works from Haydn, Beethoven, Berlioz, Schumann, Liszt, Nielsen, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Hindemith, and Shostakovich, among others. His recordings of ''Rhapsody in Blue'' (full-orchestra version) and ''An American in Paris'' for Columbia Records, released in 1959, are considered definitive by many, although Bernstein cut the ''Rhapsody'' slightly, and his more 'symphonic' approach with slower tempi is quite far from Gershwin's own conception of the piece, evident from his two recordings. (Oscar Levant, Earl Wild, and others come closer to Gershwin's own style.) Bernstein never conducted Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, or ''Porgy and Bess,'' although he did discuss the latter in his article ''Why Don't You Run Upstairs and Write a Nice Gershwin Tune?'', originally published in ''The New York Times'' and later reprinted in his 1959 book ''The Joy of Music.''

In addition to being an active conductor, Bernstein was a very influential teacher of conducting. During his many years of teaching at Tanglewood and elsewhere, he directly taught or mentored many conductors who are performing now, such as Marin Alsop, Herbert Blomstedt, Alexander Frey, Paavo Järvi, John Mauceri, Eiji Oue, Seiji Ozawa (who made his US TV debut as the guest conductor on one of the ''Young People's Concerts''), Carl St.Clair, and Michael Tilson Thomas. He also undoubtedly influenced the career choices of many US musicians who grew up watching his television programmes in the 1950s and 60s.

Recordings

Bernstein recorded extensively from the 1950s until just a few months before his death. Aside from a few early recordings in the mid-1940s for RCA Victor, Bernstein recorded primarily for Columbia Masterworks Records, especially when he was music director of the New York Philharmonic. His typical pattern of recording at that time was to record major works in the studio immediately after they were presented in the orchestra's subscription concerts, with any spare time used to record short orchestral showpieces and similar works. Many of these performances were digitally remastered and reissued by Sony as part of their 100 CD "Royal Edition" and their later "Bernstein Century" series. In 2010 many of these recordings were repackaged in a 60 CD "Bernstein Symphony Edition".

His later recordings (starting with Bizet's Carmen in 1972) were mostly made for Deutsche Grammophon, though he would occasionally return to the Columbia Masterworks label. Notable exceptions include recordings of Gustav Mahler's ''Song of the Earth'' and Mozart's 15th piano concerto and "Linz" symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for Decca Records (1966); Berlioz's ''Symphonie fantastique'' and ''Harold in Italy'' (1976) for EMI; and Wagner's ''Tristan und Isolde'' (1981) for Philips Records, a label that like Deutsche Grammophon was part of PolyGram at that time. Unlike his studio recordings for Columbia Masterworks, most of his later Deutsche Grammophon recordings were taken from live concerts (or edited together from several concerts with additional sessions to correct errors). Many replicate repertoire that he recorded in the 1950s and 60s.

In addition to his audio recordings, many of Bernstein's concerts from the 1970s onwards were recorded on motion picture film by the German film company Unitel. This included a complete cycle of the Mahler symphonies (with the Vienna Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra), as well as complete cycles of the Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann symphonies recorded at the same series of concerts as the audio recordings by Deutsche Grammophon. Many of these films appeared on Laserdisc and are now on DVD.

In total Bernstein was awarded 16 Grammys for his recordings in various categories including several for recordings released after his death. He was also awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1985.

Influence and characteristics as a composer

Bernstein was an eclectic composer whose music fused elements of jazz, Jewish music, theatre music and the work of older composers like Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud, George Gershwin, and Marc Blitzstein. Some of his works, especially his score for ''West Side Story,'' helped bridge the gap between classical and popular music. His music was rooted in tonality but in some works like his ''Kaddish Symphony'' and the opera ''A Quiet Place'' he mixed in 12-tone elements. Bernstein himself said his main motivation for composing was "to communicate" and that all his pieces, including his symphonies and concert works, "could in some sense be thought of as 'theatre' pieces." According to the League of American orchestras, he was the second most frequently performed American composer by US orchestras in 2008-9 behind Copland, and he was the 16th most frequently performed composer overall by US orchestras. (Some performances were probably due to the 90th anniversary of his birth in 2008.) His most popular pieces were the ''Overture to Candide'', the ''Symphonic Dances from West Side Story'', the ''Serenade for Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion'' and the ''Three Dance Episodes from On the Town''. His shows ''West Side Story'', ''On the Town'', ''Wonderful Town'' and ''Candide'' are regularly performed, and his symphonies and concert works are programmed from time to time by orchestras around the world. Since his death many of his works have been commercially recorded by artists other than himself. The ''Serenade'', which has been recorded more than 10 times, is probably his most recorded work not taken from an actual theatre piece.

Despite the fact that he was a popular success as a composer, Bernstein himself is reported to have been disillusioned that some of his more serious works were not rated more highly by critics, and that he himself had not been able to devote more time to composing because of his conducting and other activities. Professional criticism of Bernstein's music often involves discussing the degree to which he created something new as art versus simply skillfully borrowing and fusing together elements from others. In the late 1960s, Bernstein himself reflected that his eclecticism was in part due to his lack of lengthy periods devoted to composition, and that he was still seeking to enrich his own personal musical language in the manner of the great composers of the past, all of whom had borrowed elements from others. Perhaps the harshest criticism he received from some critics in his lifetime though was directed at works like his ''Kaddish Symphony'', his ''MASS'' and the opera ''A Quiet Place'', where they found the underlying message of the piece or the text as either mildly embarrassing, clichéd or offensive. Despite this, all these pieces have been performed, discussed and reconsidered since his death.

Although he taught conducting, Bernstein was not a teacher of composition as such, and he has no direct composing heirs. Perhaps the closest are composers like John Adams who from the 1970s onwards indirectly adopted elements of his eclectic, theatrical style.

Works

Ballet

''Fancy Free'', 1944

''Facsimile- Choreographic Essay for Orchestra'', 1946

''Dybbuk'' (ballet), 1974

Opera

''Trouble in Tahiti'', 1952

''Candide'', 1956 (new libretto in 1973, operetta final revised version in 1989)

''A Quiet Place'', 1983

Musicals

''On The Town'', 1944

''Wonderful Town'', 1953

''West Side Story'', 1957

''The Race to Urga'' (incomplete), 1969

"By Bernstein" (a Revue), 1975

''1600 Pennsylvania Avenue'', 1976

''The Madwoman of Central Park West'', (contributed to) 1979

Incidental music and other theatre

''Peter Pan'', 1950

''The Lark'', 1955

''The Firstborn'', 1958

''Mass'' (theatre piece for singers, players and dancers), 1971

Film scores

''On the Town'', (only part of his music was used), 1949

''On the Waterfront'', 1954

''West Side Story'', 1961

Orchestral

Symphony No. 1, ''Jeremiah'', 1942

''Fancy Free'' and ''Three Dance Variations from "Fancy Free,"'', concert premiere 1946

''Three Dance Episodes from "On the Town,"'' concert premiere 1947

Symphony No. 2, ''The Age of Anxiety'', (after W. H. Auden) for Piano and Orchestra, 1949 (revised in 1965)

''Serenade for Solo Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion (after Plato's "Symposium")'', 1954

''Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs'' for Solo Clarinet and Jazz Ensemble, 1949

''Symphonic Suite from "On the Waterfront"'', 1955

''Symphonic Dances from "West Side Story"'', 1961

Symphony No. 3, ''Kaddish'', for Orchestra, Mixed Chorus, Boys' Choir, Speaker and Soprano Solo, 1963 (revised in 1977)

''Dybbuk'', Suites No. 1 and 2 for Orchestra, concert premieres 1975

''Songfest: A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra'', 1977

''Three Meditations from "Mass"'' for Violoncello and Orchestra, 1977

''Slava! A Political Overture for Orchestra, 1977

''Divertimento for Orchestra'', 1980

''Halil'', nocturne for Solo Flute, Piccolo, Alto Flute, Percussion, Harp and Strings, 1981

''Concerto for Orchestra'', 1989 (Originally ''Jubilee Games'' from 1986, revised in 1989)

Overture to Candide

Choral

''Hashkiveinu'' for Cantor (tenor), Mixed Chorus and Organ, 1945

''Missa Brevis'' for Mixed Chorus and Countertenor Solo, with Percussion, 1988

''Chichester Psalms'' for Boy Soprano (or Countertenor), Mixed Chorus, and Orchestra, 1965 (Reduced version for Organ, Harp and Percussion)

Chamber music

Piano Trio, 1937, Boosey & Hawkes

Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, 1939

Brass Music, 1959

Dance Suite, 1988

Vocal music

''I Hate Music: A cycle of Five Kids Songs for Soprano and Piano'', 1943

''Big Stuff'', sung by Billie Holiday

''La Bonne Cuisine: Four Recipes for Voice and Piano'', 1948

''Silhouette (Galilee)'', 1951

''Two Love Songs'', 1960

''So Pretty'', 1968

''Piccola Serenata'', 1988

''Arias and Barcarolles'' for Mezzo-Soprano, Baritone and Piano four-hands, 1988

Piano music

''Music for Two Pianos'', 1937

''Piano Sonata'', 1938

''7 Anniversaries'', 1944

''4 Anniversaries'', 1948

''5 Anniversaries'', 1952

''Bridal Suite'', 1960

''Moby Diptych'', 1981 (republished as Anniversaries nos. 1 and 2 in Thirteen Anniversaries)

''Touches'', 1981

''13 Anniversaries'', 1988

Other music

Other occasional works, written as gifts and other forms of memorial and tribute

"The Skin of Our Teeth": An aborted work from which Bernstein took material to use in his "Chichester Psalms"

"Simhu Na" (arrangement of traditional song)

"Waltz for Mippy III" for Tuba and Piano

"Elegy for Mippy II" for Trombone alone

"Elegy for Mippy I" for Horn and Piano

"Rondo for Lifey" for Trumpet and Piano

"Fanfare for Bima" for Brass Quartet: composed in 1947 as a birthday tribute to Koussevitzky using the tune he whistled to call his cocker spaniel

"Shivaree: A Fanfare" for Double Brass Ensemble and Percussion. 1970. Commissioned by and dedicated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in honor of its Centenary. Musical material later used in "Mass."

Bibliography

Bernstein, Leonard. [1976] ''The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard'', Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-92001-5.

Videography

''The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard''. West Long Branch, New Jersey: Kultur Video. VHS ISBN 1561275700. DVD ISBN 0769715702. (videotape of the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures given at Harvard in 1973.)

''Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic''. West Long Branch, New Jersey: Kultur Video. DVD ISBN 0769715036.

''Bernstein on Beethoven: A Celebration in Vienna/Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1.'' West Long Branch, Kultur Video. DVD

''Leonard Bernstein: Omnibus – The Historic TV Broadcasts'' ,2010, E1 Ent.

''Bernstein: Reflections'' (1978), Euroarts.

''Bernstein/Beethoven'' (1982), Deustche Grammophon, DVD

''Bernstein Conducts "West Side Story" '' (1985) (retitled ''The Making of West Side Story'' in re-releases) Deutsche Grammophon, DVD

''"The Rite of Spring" in Rehearsal''

Awards

Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1951

Sonning Award (Denmark), 1956

Ditson Conductor's Award, 1958

George Peabody Medal – Johns Hopkins University, 1980

Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 1987

Royal Philarmonic Society Gold Medal (UK), 1987

Knight Grand Cross Order of Merit (Italy), 1989

Grammy Award for Best Album for Children

Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance

Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance

Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording

Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Performance

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance

Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition

Grammy Award for Best Classical Album

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

Tony Award for Best Musical

Special Tony Award

Further reading

()

References

External links

Leonard Bernstein official site

Discography

The Leonard Bernstein Collection at the Library of Congress Music Division

Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks

Bernstein's Boston, a Harvard University research project

FBI file on Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts

Gay Great – Leonard Bernstein

''Radical Chic'', a book by Tom Wolfe describing a gathering at Bernstein's apartment of New York's social elite and the Black Panther Party.

Leonard Bernstein: A Total Embrace of Music, written by Peter Gutmann, music journalist.

Arias and Barcarolles, The Leonard Bernstein Pages

Leonard Bernstein's maximum card from Israel

Obituary, ''New York Times'', October 15, 1990

''Leonard Bernstein: American Original'' (HarperCollins, 2008) Chapters by Alan Rich, Paul Boyer, Carol J. Oja, Tim Page, Burton Bernstein, Jonathan Rosenberg, Joseph Horowitz, Bill McGlaughlin, James M. Keller, John Adams

Category:1918 births Category:1990 deaths Category:20th-century classical composers Category:American classical pianists Category:American conductors (music) Category:American film score composers Category:American musical theatre composers Category:Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:George Peabody Medal winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:LGBT composers Category:LGBT Jews Category:LGBT parents Category:LGBT musicians from the United States Category:MacDowell Colony fellows Category:Opera composers Category:People from Lawrence, Massachusetts Category:Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Ballet composers Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Brandeis University faculty Category:Curtis Institute of Music alumni Category:American expatriates in Austria Category:People from Sharon, Massachusetts Category:Jewish American classical composers Category:Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

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name	Natalie Wood
birth name	Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko
birth date	July 20, 1938
birth place	San Francisco, California
death date	November 29, 1981
death place	Santa Catalina Island, California
other namess	Natasha GurdinNatalie Wood Wagner
occupation	Actress
years active	1943–81
spouse	}}

Natalie Wood (born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko (); July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American actress.

Wood began acting in movies at the age of four and became a successful child actor in such films as ''Miracle on 34th Street'' (1947). A well received performance opposite James Dean in ''Rebel Without a Cause'' (1955) earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and helped her to make the transition from a child performer. She then starred in the musicals ''West Side Story'' (1961) and ''Gypsy'' (1962). She also received Academy Award for Best Actress nominations for her performances in ''Splendor in the Grass'' (1961) and ''Love with the Proper Stranger'' (1963).

Her career continued successfully with films such as ''Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice'' (1969). After this she took a break from acting and had two children, appearing in only two theatrical films during the 1970s. She was married to actor Robert Wagner twice, and to producer Richard Gregson. She had one daughter by each: Natasha Gregson and Courtney Wagner. Her younger sister, Lana Wood, is also an actress. Wood starred in several television productions, including a remake of the film ''From Here to Eternity'' (1979) for which she won a Golden Globe Award.

Wood drowned near Santa Catalina Island, California at age 43. She had not yet completed her final film, the science fiction drama ''Brainstorm'' (1983) with Christopher Walken, which was released posthumously.

Early life and childhood stardom

Wood was born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko in San Francisco, to Russian immigrant parents Maria Stepanovna (née Zudilova) (1912–1998) and Nikolai Stepanovich Zacharenko. As an adult, she stated, "I'm very Russian, you know." She spoke in Russian and English. Her father was born in Vladivostok and he, his mother, and two brothers, immigrated to Montreal, Quebec and later to San Francisco. There, he worked as a day laborer and carpenter. Her paternal grandfather Stepan worked in a chocolate factory in Russia and was killed in street fighting between Red and White Russian soldiers in 1918. After doing another film directed by Pichel, her mother signed her to a role with 20th Century Fox studio for her first major role, the Christmas classic ''Miracle on 34th Street'' (1947), which made her one of the top child stars in Hollywood. Within a few months after the film's release she was so popular that Macy's invited her to appear in the store's annual Thanksgiving Day parade.

She would eventually appear in over 20 films as a child, appearing opposite such stars as Gene Tierney, James Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, Bette Davis and Bing Crosby. As a child actor, her formal education took place on the studio lots wherever she was acting. California law required that until age 18, actors had to spend at least three hours per day in the classroom, notes Harris. "She was a straight A student," and one of the few child actors to excel at arithmetic. Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who directed her in ''The Ghost and Mrs. Muir'' (1947), said that "In all my years in the business, I never met a smarter moppet." Wood remembers that period in her life:

I always felt guilty when I knew the crew was sitting around waiting for me to finish my three hours. As soon as the teacher let us go, I ran to the set as fast as I could.

Teen stardom

Wood successfully made the transition from child star to ingenue at age 16 when she co-starred with James Dean and Sal Mineo in ''Rebel Without a Cause'', Nicholas Ray's film about teenage rebellion. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She followed this with a small but crucial role in John Ford's western ''The Searchers'' which starred John Wayne and also featured Wood's sister, Lana, who played a younger version of her character in the film's earlier scenes.

In the 1953-1954 television season, Wood played Ann Morrison, the teenaged daughter in the ABC situation comedy, ''The Pride of the Family'', with Paul Hartman cast her father, Albie Morrison; Fay Wray, as her mother, Catherine, and Robert Hyatt, as her brother, Junior Morrison.

Wood graduated in 1956 from Van Nuys High School.

Signed to Warner Brothers, Wood was kept busy during the remainder of the decade in many 'girlfriend' roles that she found unsatisfying. The studio cast her in two films opposite Tab Hunter, hoping to turn the duo into a box office draw that never materialized. Among the other films made at this time were 1958's ''Kings Go Forth'' and ''Marjorie Morningstar''. As Marjorie Morningstar, she played the role of a young Jewish girl in New York City who has to deal with the social and religious expectations of her family, as she tries to forge her own path and separate identity.

Adult career

After appearing in the box office flop ''All the Fine Young Cannibals'', Wood's career was salvaged by her casting in director Elia Kazan's ''Splendor in the Grass'' (1961) opposite Warren Beatty, which earned Wood Best Actress Nominations at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards. Also in 1961 Wood played Maria in the Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise musical ''West Side Story'' which was a major box office and critical success, however, the singing parts were sung by Marni Nixon. Wood did sing when she starred in the 1962 film, ''Gypsy.'' She co-starred in the slapstick comedy ''The Great Race'' (1965), with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Peter Falk. Wood then received her third Academy Award nomination and another Golden Globe award in 1964 for ''Love with the Proper Stranger'', opposite Steve McQueen.

Although many of Wood's films were commercially profitable, her acting was criticized at times. In 1966 she won the Harvard Lampoon Worst Actress of the Year Award. She was the first performer in the award's history to accept it in person and the ''Harvard Crimson'' wrote she was "quite a good sport." Conversely, director Sydney Pollack said "When she was right for the part, there was no one better. She was a damn good actress." Other notable films she starred in were ''Inside Daisy Clover'' (1965) and ''This Property Is Condemned'' (1966), both of which co-starred Robert Redford and brought subsequent Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress. In both films, which were set during the Great Depression, Wood played small-town teens with big dreams. After the release of the films, Wood suffered an emotional breakdown and sought professional therapy. During this time, she turned down the Faye Dunaway role in ''Bonnie and Clyde'' because she didn't want to be separated from her analyst.

After three years away from acting, Wood played a swinger in ''Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice'' (1969), a comedy about sexual liberation. The film was one of the top ten box office hits of the year, and Wood received ten percent of the film's profits. After becoming pregnant with her first child, Natasha Gregson, in 1970, she went into semi-retirement and only acted in four more theatrical films during the remainder of her life. She made a very brief cameo appearance as herself in ''The Candidate'' (1972), reuniting her for a third time with Robert Redford. She also reunited on the screen with Robert Wagner in the television movie of the week ''The Affair'' (1973) and in an adaptation of ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' (1976) broadcast as a special by NBC in which she also worked with Sir Laurence Olivier. She made cameo appearances on Wagner's prime-time detective series ''Switch'' in 1978 as "Bubble Bath Girl" and ''Hart to Hart'' in 1979 as "Movie Star." During the last two years of her life, Wood began to work more frequently as her daughters reached school age.

Film roles Wood turned down during her career hiatus went to Ali MacGraw in ''Goodbye, Columbus'', Mia Farrow in ''The Great Gatsby'' and Faye Dunaway in ''The Towering Inferno''. Later, Wood chose to star in misfires like the disaster film ''Meteor'' (1979) with Sean Connery and the sex comedy ''The Last Married Couple in America'' (1980). She found more success in television, receiving high ratings and critical acclaim in 1979 for ''The Cracker Factory'' and especially the miniseries film ''From Here to Eternity'' with Kim Basinger and William Devane. Wood's performance in the latter won her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 1980. Later that year, she starred in ''The Memory of Eva Ryker'' which proved to be her last completed production.

At the time of her death, Wood was filming the sci-fi film ''Brainstorm'' (1983), co-starring Christopher Walken and directed by Douglas Trumbull. She was also scheduled to star in a theatrical production of ''Anastasia'' with Wendy Hiller and in a film called ''Country of the Heart'', playing a terminally ill writer who has an affair with a teenager, to be played by Timothy Hutton. Due to her untimely death, both of the latter projects were canceled and the ending of ''Brainstorm'' had to be re-written. A stand-in and sound-alikes were used to replace Wood for some of her critical scenes. The film was released posthumously on September 30, 1983, and was dedicated to her in the closing credits.

She appeared in 56 films for cinema and television. Following her death, ''Time'' magazine noted that although critical praise for Wood had been sparse throughout her career, "she always had work."

Personal life

Marriages

Natalie Wood's two marriages to actor Robert Wagner were highly publicized. Wood said she had a crush on Wagner since she was a child and on her 18th birthday she went on a studio-arranged date with the 26-year old actor. They married a year later on December 28, 1957, which met with great protest from Wood's mother. In an article in February 2009, Wagner recalled their early romance:

I saw Natalie around town but she never seemed interested. She was making ''Rebel Without a Cause'' and hanging out with James Dean; I was with an older crowd. The first time I remember really talking to her was at a fashion show in 1956. She was beautiful, but still gave no hint about the mad crush she had on me. I later found out she had signed with my agent simply because he was my agent. A month later, I invited Natalie to a premiere on what turned out to be her 18th birthday. At dinner, we both sensed things were different. I sent her flowers and the dates continued. I remember the instant I fell in love with her. One night on board a small boat I owned, she looked at me with love, her dark brown eyes lit by a table lantern. That moment changed my life.

A year after their wedding, Wood expressed her feelings in a letter to her new husband:

: "You are my husband, my child, my strength, my weakness, my lover, my life."

Wood and Wagner separated in June 1961 and divorced in April 1962.

On May 30, 1969, Wood married British producer Richard Gregson. The couple dated for two and a half years prior to their marriage, while Gregson waited for his divorce to be finalized. They had a daughter, Natasha Gregson (born September 29, 1970). They separated in August 1971 after Wood overheard an inappropriate telephone conversation between her secretary and Gregson. The split also marked a brief estrangement between Wood and her family, when mother Maria and sister Lana told her to reconcile with Gregson for the sake of her newborn child. She filed for divorce, and it was finalized in April 1972.

In early 1972, Wood resumed her relationship with Wagner. The couple remarried on July 16, 1972, just five months after reconciling and only three months after she divorced Gregson. Their daughter, Courtney Wagner, was born on March 9, 1974. They remained married until Wood's death nine years later on November 29, 1981.

Other relationships

Biographer Suzanne Finstad writes that Wood had a relationship with director Nicholas Ray, director of ''Rebel Without a Cause'', when she was 16 and he was 43. During her teens, Wood went on studio-arranged dates with older men, including actors Tab Hunter and Nick Adams, and dated actor Raymond Burr, when she was 17 and he was 38. Wood also dated actors Michael Caine, Steve McQueen, Warren Beatty and Dennis Hopper, singer Elvis Presley, director Henry Jaglom, and politician Jerry Brown.

Among her celebrity friends were fellow child performers Margaret O'Brien, Carol Lynley and Stefanie Powers, .

Death

In September and October 1981, Wood stayed in Raleigh, North Carolina where she, Christopher Walken, Louise Fletcher and other cast members did location work for the science-fiction film ''Brainstorm''. Although her husband Robert Wagner had a commitment to his series ''Hart to Hart'' in Los Angeles, he visited Wood in Raleigh once. Wood spent most of November in California shooting interior scenes, many of them utilizing special effects, with other cast members on the MGM lot in Culver City.

Wood spent Thanksgiving at her Beverly Hills home with her husband, parents, sister Lana and secretary Mart Crowley. The next day, the Wagners and Christopher Walken went to Catalina Island for the weekend. On Saturday night, November 28, the Wagners' yacht (''Splendour'') was anchored in Isthmus Cove. Also on board was the boat's skipper, Dennis Davern, who had worked for the couple for many years. The official theory is that Wood either tried to leave the yacht or to secure a dinghy from banging against the hull when she accidentally slipped and fell overboard. When her body was found, she was wearing a down jacket, nightgown, and socks. A woman on a nearby yacht said she heard calls for help at around midnight. The cries lasted for about 15 minutes and were answered by someone else who said, "Take it easy. We'll be over to get you." "It was laid back," the witness recalled. "There was no urgency or immediacy in their shouts." There was much partying going on in the waters of Isthmus Cove, though, and while it has never been proven that the woman calling for help was, indeed, Natalie Wood, no other person has ever been identified or come forward as having called out for help on that night. An investigation by Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi resulted in an official verdict of accidental drowning. Noguchi concluded Wood had drunk "seven or eight" glasses of wine and was intoxicated when she died. Noguchi also wrote that he found Wood's fingernail scratches on the side of the rubber dinghy indicating she was trying to get in. Wood was 43 at the time of her death and is buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery. On March 11, 2010 Wood's sister Lana stated that she is going to ask that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reopen the case of her death.

Scores of international media and photographers and thousands of ordinary spectators tried to attend Wood's funeral at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery. All were required to remain outside the cemetery walls. Among the notable attendees were Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Fred Astaire, Rock Hudson, David Niven, Gregory Peck, Gene Kelly, Elia Kazan and Sir Laurence Olivier. Olivier flew from London to Los Angeles to attend.

Filmography

Film

Notes
1943		Little girl who drops ice cream cone	uncredited
1946	''The Bride Wore Boots''	Carol Warren
1946	''Tomorrow Is Forever''	Margaret Ludwig
1947	''Driftwood''	Jenny Hollingsworth
1947	''The Ghost and Mrs. Muir''	Anna Muir as a child
1947	''Miracle on 34th Street''	Susan Walker
1948	''Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!''	Bean McGill
1949	''Father Was a Fullback''	Ellen Cooper
1949	''The Green Promise''	Susan Anastasia Matthews
1949	''Chicken Every Sunday''	Ruth Hefferan
1950		Nancy 'Nan' Howard
1950	''The Jackpot''	Phyllis Lawrence
1950		Penny Macaulay
1950	''No Sad Songs for Me''	Polly Scott
1951	''The Blue Veil''	Stephanie Rawlins
1951	''Dear Brat''	Pauline Jones
1952		Gretchen Drew
1952	''Just for You'	Barbara Blake
1952	''The Rose Bowl Story''	Sally Burke
1954		Helena as a child
1955	''Rebel Without a Cause''	Judy	Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1955	''One Desire''	Seely Dowder
1956	''The Girl He Left Behind''	Susan Daniels
1956	''The Burning Hills''	Maria Christina Colton
1956	''A Cry in the Night''	Liz Taggert
1956		Debbie Edwards (older)
1957	''Bombers B-52''	Lois Brennan
1958	''Kings Go Forth''	Monique Blair
1958		Marjorie Morgenstern
1960	''All the Fine Young Cannibals''	Sarah 'Salome' Davis
1960	''Cash McCall''	Lory Austen
1961		Maria
1961	''Splendor in the Grass''	Wilma Dean Loomis
1962		Louise	Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1963	''Love with the Proper Stranger''	Angie Rossini	Nominated—Academy Award for Best ActressNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1964		Helen Gurley Brown
1965	''Inside Daisy Clover''	Daisy Clover	Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or ComedyNominated—World Film Favorite – Female
1965	''The Great Race''	Maggie DuBois
1966		Penelope Elcott
1966	''This Property Is Condemned''	Alva Starr	Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1969	''Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice''	Carol Sanders
1972		Herself	cameo
1973	''The Affair''	Courtney Patterson	TV movie
1975	''Peeper''	Ellen Prendergast
1976	''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof''	Maggie	TV movie
1979		Karen Holmes	Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama
1979	''The Cracker Factory''	Cassie Barrett	TV movie
1979		Tatiana Nikolaevna Donskaya
1980	''The Last Married Couple in America''	Mari Thompson
1980	''The Memory of Eva Ryker''	Eva/Claire Ryker	TV movie
1980	''Willie & Phil''	Herself	(cameo)
1983		Karen Brace	Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress

Television

Notes
1953	''Jukebox Jury''	as Herself	Guest appearance
1953	''Pride of the Family''	Ann Morrison	One season
1954		Rene Marchand	One episode, "Return of the Dead"
1969	''Bracken's World''	Cameo	Guest appearance
1978		Girl in the Bubble Bath	Guest Appearance
1979	''Hart to Hart''	Movie Star	Pilot episode, as Natasha Gurdin

Other awards

Most Talented Young Actress of 1946 National Association of Theatre OwnersGolden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress Golden Laurel Awards Golden Laurel Awards Golden Laurel Awards Golden Laurel Awards Grauman's Chinese Theatre Golden Laurel Awards Golden Laurel Awards Golden Laurel Awards Golden Laurel Awards Golden Laurel Awards Mar del Plata Film FestivalNew York Film Critics Circle Awards Golden Laurel Awards Golden Laurel Awards Golden Laurel Awards Golden Globe Award Golden Laurel Awards Golden Laurel Awards Golden Laurel Awards Golden Laurel Awards Golden Laurel Awards Hollywood Chamber of Commerce

Year !! Organization !! Award !! Film !! Result
1946	Box Office Magazine	|	''Tomorrow Is Forever''	Won
1956	|	Star of Tomorrow Award		Won
1957	Golden Globe Award ||	New Star Of The Year – Actress	''Rebel Without a Cause''	Won
1958	|	Top Female Dramatic Performance	Marjorie Morningstar (film)>Marjorie Morningstar''	Nominated
1958	|	Top Female Star		Nominated (13th place)
1959	|	Top Female Star		Nominated (7th place)
1960	|	Top Female Star		Nominated (9th place)
1961	|	Handprint Ceremony		Inducted
1961	|	Top Female Star		Nominated (14th place)
1962	|	Top Female Dramatic Performance	''Splendor in the Grass''	Nominated
1962	|	Top Female Star		Nominated (5th place)
1963	|	Top Female Musical Performance	Gypsy (1962 film)>Gypsy''	Nominated
1963	|	Top Female Star		Nominated (2nd place)
1964	|	Best Actress	''Love with the Proper Stranger''	Won
1964	|	Best Actress	''Love with the Proper Stranger''	Nominated
1964	|	Top Female Dramatic Performance	''Love with the Proper Stranger''	Nominated
1964	|	Top Female Star		Nominated (3rd place)
1965	|	Top Female Star		Nominated (6th place)
1966	|	World Film Favorite		Won
1966	|	Top Female Star		Nominated (8th place)
1967	|	Top Female Star		Nominated (3rd place)
1968	|	Top Female Star		Nominated (12th place)
1970	|	Top Female Star		Nominated (9th place)
1971	|	Top Female Star		Nominated (9th place)
1987	|	Hollywood Walk of Fame		Inducted

Bibliography

Frascella, Lawrence and Al Weisel. ''Live Fast, Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause''. Touchstone, 2005. ISBN 0-7432-6082-1.

Nickens, Christopher. ''Natalie Wood: A Biography in Photographs''. Doubleday, 1986. ISBN 0-385-23307-8.

Noguchi, Thomas T. ''Coroner''. Simon & Schuster (October 1983). ISBN 0671467727.

Rulli, Marti and Dennis Davern. ''Goodbye Natalie Goodbye Splendour''. Medallion, 2009. ISBN 1597776394.

Wood, Lana. ''Natalie: A Memoir by Her Sister''. Putnam Pub Group, 1984. ISBN 0-399-12903-0.

References

External links

'Natalie Wood Style and Beauty Page'

Natalie Wood at Who2

Category:1938 births Category:1981 deaths Category:Accidental deaths in California Category:American actors Category:American child actors Category:American film actors Category:American people of Russian descent Category:Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (television) winners Category:Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery Category:Deaths by drowning Category:New Star of the Year (Actress) Golden Globe winners Category:People from San Francisco, California Category:People from Santa Rosa, California Category:Santa Rosa, California

an:Natalie Wood bs:Natalie Wood ca:Natalie Wood cs:Natalie Wood cy:Natalie Wood da:Natalie Wood de:Natalie Wood es:Natalie Wood eo:Natalie Wood eu:Natalie Wood fa:ناتالی وود fr:Natalie Wood gv:Natalie Wood hr:Natalie Wood id:Natalie Wood it:Natalie Wood he:נטלי ווד ka:ნატალი ვუდი hu:Natalie Wood nl:Natalie Wood ja:ナタリー・ウッド no:Natalie Wood pl:Natalie Wood pt:Natalie Wood ro:Natalie Wood ru:Натали Вуд sl:Natalie Wood sr:Натали Вуд sh:Natalie Wood fi:Natalie Wood sv:Natalie Wood tl:Natalie Wood th:นาตาลี วูด tr:Natalie Wood uk:Наталі Вуд zh:娜妲麗·華

name	Marni Nixon
birth date	February 22, 1930
birth place	Altadena, California, United States
spouse	Ernest Gold (m. 1950–1969)Lajos Frederick Fenster(m. 1971–1975)Albert Block (m. 1983-present)
children	Andrew Gold (1951-2011)Martha Gold (b. 1954)Melani Gold (b. 1962) }}

Marni Nixon (born February 22, 1930) is an American soprano and playback singer for featured actresses in movie musicals. She has also spent much of her career performing in concerts with major symphony orchestras around the world and in operas and musicals throughout the United States.

Biography

Born Margaret McEathron in Altadena, California, Nixon began singing at an early age in choruses. At the age of 14, she became part of the newly formed Los Angeles Concert Youth Chorus under conductor Roger Wagner; this choir evolved into the Roger Wagner Chorale in 1948, and later into the Los Angeles Master Chorale in 1964.

She went on to study singing and opera with Carl Ebert, Jan Popper, Boris Goldovsky and Sarah Caldwell. She embarked on a varied career, involving film and musical comedy as well as opera and concerts. She appeared on American television, dubbed the singing voices of film actresses in ''The King and I'', ''West Side Story'' and ''My Fair Lady'', and acted in several commercial stage ventures. She has performed works by Anton Webern, Igor Stravinsky, Charles Ives, Paul Hindemith and Alexander Goehr, many of which she has also recorded.

Nixon's opera repertory includes Zerbinetta in ''Ariadne auf Naxos'', Susanna in ''Le nozze di Figaro'', both Blonde and Konstanze in ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail'', Violetta in ''La traviata'', the title role in ''La Périchole'' and Philine in ''Mignon''. Her opera credits include performances at Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera and the Tanglewood Festival among others. In addition to giving recitals, she appeared with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra among others. She taught at the California Institute of Arts from 1969–1971 and joined the faculty of the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara, in 1980 where she taught for many years.

Nixon's autobiography, ''I Could Have Sung All Night'', was published by Billboard Books in 2006.

Career highlights

Nixon's dubbing career includes:

The voices of the angels heard by Ingrid Bergman in ''Joan of Arc'' (1948).

The singing voice for Margaret O'Brien in ''The Secret Garden'' (1949).

Providing Marilyn Monroe with a few top notes in her performance of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in ''Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'' (1953).

An eerie vocalise (wordless vocal) as part of George Antheil's score for ''Dementia'' (1955).

The singing voice for Deborah Kerr in the film of Rodgers & Hammerstein's ''The King and I'' (1956) (in one song — "Shall I tell you what I think of you?" — Kerr's and Nixon's voices were skilfully intertwined; this was deleted from the film before its release, but it was retained on the soundtrack cast recording; Deborah Kerr also provides the spoken words at the beginning of "Getting to know you").

Dubbing Deborah Kerr's singing voice again in ''An Affair to Remember'', one year after dubbing her in ''The King and I''.

The singing voice for Natalie Wood as Maria in ''West Side Story'' (1961). Nixon also sang some parts of the score of Anita played by Rita Moreno, sharing the load with co-dubber Betty Wand and Moreno herself. In parts of the quintet setting of the song "Tonight", she sings both Maria and Anita's lines, according to her autobiography.

The singing voice for Audrey Hepburn as Eliza in ''My Fair Lady'' (1964). In the finished film, the only remaining singing vocals by Audrey Hepburn herself are a section of the song "Just You Wait", one line in the song "I Could Have Danced All Night" – "Sleep, sleep, I couldn't sleep tonight", and "Just You Wait" (reprise).

Except for ''Dementia'', in which she received on-screen credit as "Featured Voice", the credits for her many dubbing roles did not appear on the titles of any of the films, and Nixon did not begin to be fully credited until the movies' subsequent release on VHS decades later.

Because she performed the voices for actresses in musicals, she has been called "The Ghostess with the Mostess", and "The Voice of Hollywood".

''The Sound of Music''

Nixon appeared on screen first telling her opinion to the nuns about Maria and then singing for herself as Sister Sophia in the film ''The Sound of Music'', cast in the role by director Robert Wise. In the DVD commentary to the film, he comments that audiences were finally able to see the woman whose voice they knew so well.

Later work

Later, she started to perform on stage, as Eliza Doolittle in ''My Fair Lady'' and as Fraulein Schneider in ''Cabaret''. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she hosted a children's television show in Seattle on KOMO-TV channel 4 called ''Boomerang''. In 2001, she replaced Joan Roberts as Heidi Schiller in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's ''Follies''. In 2003, she returned to Broadway as a replacement in role of Guido's mother in the revival of ''Nine.''

In the 1998 Disney film ''Mulan'', Nixon sang the role of Grandmother Fa.

In March 2007 she was involved in a concert version of ''My Fair Lady'', in which she performed the non-singing role of Mrs. Higgins, Professor Higgins's mother.

On June 18, 2007, Nixon joined a group of volunteers who were inspired by the documentary film "Tocar y Luchar." They are trying to bring more music education to all children.

Nixon performed on the U.S. National Tour of Cameron Mackintosh's U.K. revival of ''My Fair Lady'' through July 2008, replacing Sally Ann Howes in the role of Mrs. Higgins.

Under her own name, she has also recorded songs by Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Arnold Schönberg, Charles Ives, and Anton Webern.

The first of her three husbands, Ernest Gold, composed the theme song to the movie ''Exodus''. They had three children together, one of whom was the singer and songwriter Andrew Gold, who died on June 3, 2011.

On October 27, 2008, Marni Nixon was presented with the Singer Symposium's Distinguished Artist Award in New York City.

Notes

Sources

Nixon, Marni, with Cole, Stephen. ''I Could Have Sung All Night: My Story.'' New York, Billboard Books. 2006. ISBN 0-8230-8365-9.

Martin Bernheimer: "Marni Nixon", ''Grove Music Online'' ed. L. Macy (Accessed September 22, 2008), (subscription access)

External links

Official website

;Interview

Marni Nixon - A Portrait for Radio - "Offbeat" on 103.2 Dublin City FM. Karishmeh Felfeli-Crawford in conversation with Marni Nixon

Category:1930 births Category:Living people Category:American female singers Category:American musical theatre actors Category:Operatic sopranos Category:American opera singers Category:California Institute of the Arts faculty Category:Music Academy of the West faculty

es:Marni Nixon ja:マーニ・ニクソン pt:Marni Nixon fi:Marni Nixon