Are you a Jet or a Shark?

Nov 2, 2015
3 min read

This is a show cherished by so many musical lovers. Since its premiere on September 26, 1957, WSS has had a revival tour and been made into a movie. It has also been used as the basic plot line for many other movie adaptations. Fans around the world admired the story of star-crossed lovers in the middle of a gang rivalry between the Jets (Americans) and the Sharks (Puerto Ricans). This musical tells of the love affair between the sister of the Sharks’ leader, Maria and the best friend of the Jets’ leader, Tony. The show is filled with dramatic and energetic dance sequences which caused it to stand out in the 1950s. Since it went against traditional views with a racial conflict, many people originally viewed the show as controversial.

The show was written by Arthur Laurents and composed by Leonard Bernstein. West Side Story held its initial opening night at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. Bernstein provided the perfect musical essence that brought the story to life. He later admitted that it was by far the greatest accomplishment of his career as a composer. Laurents had always admired Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and decided to transform it into a modern gang war in New York’s West Side. Laurents and Bernstein worked alongside choreographer Jerome Robbins and the lyricist Stephen Sondheim to bring the show to peak performance. West Side Story went on to win two Tony Awards, for choreography and set design, but managed to keep the show running for a total of 732 performances. In 1961, the iconic musical was made into a film starring Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer. The enormous success of the movie led to ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Although the show was still performed in smaller settings, it mainly stayed dormant on Broadway until 2009. There was an announcement that West Side Story would be making a comeback the following September. The New York cast performed in Broadway’s Palace Theatre and consisted of Matt Cavenaugh (A Catered Affair, Grey Gardens) as Tony and Josefina Scaglione (Argentinean version of Hairspray) as Maria. A few other familiar faces were Karen Olivo (In the Heights) as Anita, Cody Green (Movin’ Out) as Riff, and George Akram (Stuck on You) as Bernardo. However, on the other side of America a Los Angeles cast performed a revival of their own in Pantages Theatre. This cast was graced with the directing talents of the show’s creator, Arthur Laurents. The cast contained the fresh faces of Kyle Harris as Tony and Ali Ewoldt as Maria. The majority of this cast consisted of new, budding actors who were getting their feet wet. They may have been little sprouts in 2010, but now some of them are now well-known nationwide. Kyle Harris has since taken on the role of Mouse’s boyfriend Seth on The Carrie Diaries and now stars as Cameron Goodkin in the ABC Family original series, Stitchers. Ali Ewoldt has since been involved in several Broadway productions, including the revival of The King and I. Another famous face that many people do not realize was in the revival cast is none other than Grant Gustin, star of the hit CW series The Flash.

The Virginia native was studying in the BFA Music Theatre Program at Elon University in North Carolina when he left to take on the role of Baby John in West Side Story. Grant was not a recognizable celebrity at the time, but it was not much later until girls across the country were screaming his name. Once the revival tour came to an end in 2011, Grant was selected for the recurring role of Sebastian Smythe on the Fox series Glee. Smythe was described as a promiscuous and scheming member of the Dalton Academy Warblers. Then on September 13, 2013 it was officially announced that Grant would play Barry Allen in the second season of the CW series Arrow. He was originally supposed to appear in three episodes, the last being a pilot-like episode for a Flash series if the fan response was positive. The pilot plan worked which jumpstarted the series of the Scarlet Speedster. On the October 7, 2014 premiere, the show broke a five year record with 4.8 million viewers. Although he is widely known as the “Fastest Man Alive” Grant has openly admitted that he fully intends to return to the stage in the future since he has yet to make his Broadway debut!