West Side Story

In the organizer's words:

Musical by Leonard Bernstein

It's an age-old story: two people who love each other but cannot get together due to social constraints. West Side Story is one of the most famous musical theater works of all time and - inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet - transposes the story of impossible love to modern-day New York.

Tony is a member of the Jets, a gang of American youths who are in bitter conflict with the Sharks, a group of teenagers of Puerto Rican descent. At a meeting between the two gangs, Tony meets Maria, the sister of Shark leader Bernardo, and the two suddenly fall in love. As the fight between the rival gangs escalates and Tony becomes involved in a murder, a happy future together becomes unattainable for the two.

Leonard Bernstein created an extraordinary musical language for West Side Story, in which modern jazz, tense dramatic sequences and lyrical, smoldering numbers stand side by side - a mixture of show with spectacular choreography and stirring drama. Against a backdrop of violence and racism, a love story unfolds that for a moment makes us believe in the - perhaps utopian - possibility of overriding all boundaries and prejudices. With unmistakable songs such as "Maria" and "Somewhere", West Side Story became a global success after its premiere in 1957 - and remains so to this day.

Yara Hassan, who most recently worked as a choreographer and director at the theaters in Dortmund and Bielefeld, brings Bernstein's great classic to the stage of Theater Hagen.