Julia L. Foulkes

A Place for Us (eBook, ePUB)

"West Side Story" and New York

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

The making of the classic musical: "A fascinating read focusing equally on the show and the world into which it was born."- Choice From its 1957 Broadway debut to multiple revivals, from the Oscar-winning film to countless amateur productions, West Side Storyis nothing less than an American touchstone-an updating of Shakespeare vividly realized in a rapidly changing postwar New York. A lifelong fan of the show, Julia 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 collaborators Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents. Their determination to evoke life in New York as it was actually lived helped give West Side Storyits 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 Storyfan, A Place for Usis a revelatory new exploration of an American classic.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: The University of Chicago Press
• Seitenzahl: 272
• Erscheinungstermin: 4. März 2020
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780226301945
• Artikelnr.: 47135532

Autorenporträt

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.