First, the cast album of that production does not include the overture. There is a much-reissued studio-cast recording conducted by Lawrence Leonard, conductor of the London production, and on which George Chakiris is heard as Riff (the role he played in London), that has sometimes been erroneously described and misleadingly labeled as the original London cast recording, but it's not. The only true original London cast recording is the EP that featured Marlys Watters and Don McKay in four numbers (also conducted by Lawrence Leonard).
Second, there is reason to believe that the overture was played in London and that it was played during the original Broadway run, despite what has often been written (such as in the very first sentence, if memory serves, of Keith Garebian's book on the show). |
