A Place for Us: "West Side Story" and New York

by Julia L. Foulkes

Overview

From its Broadway debut to the Oscar-winning film to countless amateur productions, West Side Story is nothing less than an American touchstone—an updating of Shakespeare vividly realized in a rapidly changing postwar New York.

That vision of postwar New York is at the heart of Julia L. Foulkes’s A Place for Us. A lifelong fan of the show, Foulkes became interested in its history when she made an unexpected discovery: scenes for the iconic film version were shot on the demolition site destined to become part of the Lincoln Center redevelopment area—a crowning jewel of postwar urban renewal. Foulkes interweaves the story of the creation of the musical and film with the remaking of the Upper West Side and the larger tale of New York’s postwar aspirations. Making unprecedented use of director and choreographer Jerome Robbins’s revelatory papers, she shows the crucial role played by the political commitments of Robbins and his fellow gay, Jewish collaborators, Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents. Their determination to evoke life in New York as it was actually lived helped give West Side Story its unshakable sense of place even as it put forward a vision of a new, vigorous, determinedly multicultural American city.

Beautifully written and full of surprises for even the most dedicated West Side Story fan, A Place for Us is a revelatory new exploration of an American classic.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226301808
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	10/24/2016
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Julia L. Foulkes is professor of history at the New School in New York and the author of Modern Bodies: Dance and American Modernism from Martha Graham to Alvin Ailey and To the City: Urban Photographs of the New Deal.
 

Table of Contents

Prologue: "There's a place for us" 1

1 "Have you heard the voice of my city" 1949-55 6

2 "Make alive the Daily life," 1955-57 38

3 "Comes from life itself," 1957 62

4 "Get cool, boy," 1958-59 94

5 "Camera and choreography," 1960-61 116

6 "New York Rhapsody," 1962-70 158

7 "Somewhere" 187

Acknowledgments 207

Notes 211

Bibliography 231

Index 239

Editorial Reviews

"Foulkes's approach is chronological, but this is no pedantic march through time. Rather it is a fascinating read focusing equally on the show and the world into which it was born. . . . Essential."

Choice

"A Place for Us tells a new story about one of US theater's most important plays. A skillful historian, Julia Foulkes delves deeply into the archive to recover the details and dynamics of West Side Story from its conception and production to its film adaptation and global circulation. In doing so, she connects that story to the contemporaneous events and cultural anxieties that made the musical both timely and timeless."
 

Shane Vogel

"An excellent account of West Side Story and its central role as a play and movie in American musical history and in American culture more generally. What makes the book unique is its focus on New York and the urban experience as central to the story's appeal at a time when the city was undergoing massive urban renewal, particularly on the West Side, throwing the urban poor into ethnic and racial conflict over rapidly decreasing turf. A lively, well-written book that will appeal to fans of theater and American history alike."

Lewis A. Erenberg

10/15/2016
Foulkes (history, New School; Modern Bodies) delivers a behind-the-scenes exploration of the research, thought, compromise, and controversy of the musical West Side Story, from its 1949 conception to concern about a 1980 revival with a non-Puerto Rican Maria. Director/choreographer Jerome Robbins, composer Leonard Bernstein, and writer Arthur Laurents started with a rough idea shared with friends, associates, and potential backers. They brought in collaborators such as composer Stephen Sondheim as they sought to address cultural clashes, juvenile delinquency, and a longing to belong, set in the streets of New York City. There was high praise and also criticism about casting choices. Reviewers mused whether the rival gangs, Sharks and Jets, had parallels in communism and the Cold War. The transition from stage to film did not always go smoothly. Foulkes makes extensive use of the archives of Robbins, Bernstein, Laurents, Sondheim, producers Roger Stevens and Harold Prince, and others to support her conclusions. VERDICT For those with deep curiosity about West Side Story and urban social conflicts of the 1950s and 1960s. Libraries with significant theater collections, or those in the New York City area may also want to consider.—Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley Sch., Fort Worth, TX

Library Journal