Alan, I am not the person who created West Side Story on stage, but I visited there often. I saw WSS four times during its orignal run: November 57; March 58; August 58; and April 59. Each time there was an overture. It consisted of three parts-the first--the Quintet and chorus, then Somewhere with piano accompaniment, and finally The Dance at the Gym. After the overture finished, the house went dark and then the curtain rose,with Riff and three other Jets standing silently. Then the danced prologue. Since the prologue is so visual, I doubt the observers were referring to it as the overture.
Interesting to note that when The Sound of Music opened in November of 59, there was much mention in the newspapers that the musical began without an overture. Rodgers made it clear in interviews how important this was to him. If two years earlier,WSS had opened without an overture, there certainly would have been articles in the papers around the time of its opening about there not being one. |
