West Side Story will not return to Broadway

New York

West Side Story, an ambitious, reimagined revival of the classic musical, will not reopen when Broadway returns this autumn, the show announced on Monday, making it one of the biggest productions yet to become a casualty of the pandemic.

The show's lead producer, Scott Rudin, announced in April that he was stepping back from active roles in his Broadway productions after he came under fire for a long history of bullying employees.

But Rudin said at the time that while the decisions about the future of West Side Story and his other shows would be left to others, he hoped that they would return to Broadway when theatres were allowed to reopen.

The West Side Story revival - put together by a creative team with avant-garde credentials, including the director Ivo van Hove and the choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker - opened in February 2020, less than a month before the coronavirus outbreak shut down Broadway and brought performances around the nation to a halt.

"This difficult and painful decision comes after we have explored every possible path to a successful run, and unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, reopening is not a practical proposition," Kate Horton, a producer on the show, said in a statement.

"We thank all the brilliant, creative artists who brought West Side Story to life at the Broadway Theater, even for so brief a time, especially the extraordinary acting company, 33 of whom made their Broadway debuts in this production."

News of the closure of West Side Story comes as Broadway is cautiously preparing for a return.

Preview performances of the play Pass Over began last week, and are scheduled to be followed next month by the return of longtime favourites including Hadestown, Hamilton, Wicked and others.

The West Side Story production, while daring, opened to mixed reviews.

A new film adaptation by Steven Spielberg is scheduled to be released in December, but the Broadway show will not be around to capitalise on any interest that the new film version generates. NYTIMES