For 50 days, an international team of 34 young actors and 20 musicians has been rehearsing for the premiere of a new touring production of “West Side Story” at the Deutsches Theater in Munich. This is where the “No. 1 Greatest Musical of All Time” (TheTimes) Performed for the first time in Germany in 1961, just four years after its premiere in Washington. The new production team around Lonny Price (“Sweeney Todd” with Emmy Thompson, “Sunset Boulevard” with Glenn Close) maintains close contact with Alexander Bernstein, who watches over the work of his father, the great composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, from New York . You can reach him there via Zoom for an interview.
SZ: Are you coming to the premiere?
Alexander Bernstein: Yes, first a preview, then the premiere. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve only been to Munich once so far, for lunch.
Your father has a connection to Munich. He was the first American conductor to come to Germany after World War II. On May 9, 1948, he conducted the Bavarian State Orchestra in the Prinzregententheater. An extraordinary act for a Jewish artist. The next day he played with survivors of the Holocaust in front of 10,000 former prisoners in the former concentration camps in Landsberg and Feldafing.
I have heard that. It must have been very emotional for him. At that time, many in the USA were far from ready for such conciliatory acts.
Alexander Bernstein is the second of three children of New York composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. He is Vice President and Treasurer of the Leonard Bernstein Office, President of the educational organization Artful Learning founded by his father. He himself worked as a studied actor and theater teacher.
(Photo: Whitney Browne)
Her father was also active against the Vietnam War and against racial discrimination. Was politics a topic at home?
Yes, my father and mother were very passionate about social justice. At the dinner table we talked constantly about politics and the problems of the world. “West Side Story” accurately reflects his worldview, as well as that of his co-creators Jerome Robins, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents. My father had a copy of “Romeo and Juliet” to which he referred, on the first page he had written: “A plea for tolerance through and through!” It was his mantra for the whole show.
The “West Side Story” was initially intended to show a completely different conflict: that between Jews and Catholics in New York. Why did your father change that?
Right, originally it was supposed to be set as “East Side Story” on the Lower East Side, around the time of Easter and Passover. But my father wasn’t inspired by it musically at all. Only when they switched to the gangs of immigrants and poor whites did it click: this conflict between hot Latino music and weird cool jazz.
After the play premiered in 1957, there were hardly any changes.
That’s right, stage production is always very similar around the world. Well, you change the costumes and the scenery a bit. There are productions at La Scala in Milan as well as school theater groups. But the music, the dance, the whole show is always the same.
Choreographer Julio Monge rehearses the new “West Side Story” production in New York.
(Photo: Whitney Browne)
Director Lonny Price, a longtime friend of the Bernstein family, at rehearsals in New York.
(Photo: Whitney Browne)
The Oscar-winning film adaptation from 1961, which many of us still know from English lessons, deviated from this. The new movie from Steven Spielberg is closer to the original again. Your influence as a consultant?
Oh well. I was available for questions. It was really one of the greatest experiences of my life that I was allowed to accompany the process on the set. The new movie is fantastic, it has an all new book by Tony Kushner, the music is gorgeous performed by the New York Philharmonic.
Have you ever raised your hand and said: “No, Mr. Spielberg, that’s not how it works!”
Haha, I could have done that, but I didn’t have to. We talked, sometimes he asked me something.
The “West Side Story” is still danced with the original choreography of its creator Jerome Robbins.
(Photo: Jeff Busby)
For example?
One time at “Dance At The Gym” this silly little tune plays and when it stops everyone has to dance with the first one who comes along. Spielberg wanted to extend the game, and he asked if the play could be played longer for the scene. I said: well, of course, go ahead.
You can veto even such small details. Every director can do whatever he wants with the model “Romeo and Juliet”. Why are you so strict?
Well, West Side Story isn’t 500 years old. The rights are still held by the heirs of the four authors. We love interesting new perspectives on it. But all four sides have to agree to all productions and changes, which makes it a bit complicated. In about 50 years, the piece will become public property, after which everyone can do what they want with it.
Did you take a look at the score for the new production?
We have Garth Sturiale for that, he’s in Munich and he re-orchestrated the piece. I’m not really a musician, my father’s talent jumped me.
Didn’t you have piano lessons from your father?
Thank God not with him! I’ve had lessons with a number of piano teachers who really tried. I didn’t, I was lazy, I just couldn’t do it. So I tried my hand at acting for a while.
You spoke with your sister Nina in 1980 for a Deutsche Grammophon record with Jose Carreras Toni and Maria. Your father was the director. Were you excited?
Excited and intimidated. My father conducted, we had to pay attention to the right use. It was hard to predict, my father just raised his eyebrow. (laughs) I think he was just teasing us a bit…
The film “Maestro” will be released in 2023, Bradley Cooper will play your father in it. Did you have a say in that too?
My sisters and I have been talking to Bradley Cooper for years. He’s so dedicated. He is also a director, producer and co-writes the screenplay. Unbelievable. At first he just wanted to make a film about a conductor. The more he learned about my father, the more it affected him.
How did you feel about the fact that the private life of your family is the focus of a Hollywood film: his love for your mother, but also the breakup and the affairs?
I’ve learned my whole life how to deal with it. There was a lot of pain my mother had to go through because of his affairs with both women and men, but they really loved each other. It was quite interesting to be able to be a part of this film and take a step back and see it as a different person.
How was it for you as a child to have such a world famous dad?
Well, he took us on trips all over the world. And I knew he was well known in New York because he was greeted on the street and in restaurants. “Hi, Lenni,” he loved that. But we didn’t really get it until my sister Jamie and I watched The Flintstones on TV. Wilma said, “Oh, Fred, let’s go to the Hollyrock Bowl, I love Lenni Bernstone. He plays Rockmaninoff.” Our jaws dropped: “He’s with the Flintstones! Can’t believe he’s famous.”
How many times have you seen “West Side Story”?
I’ve lost count. 1000 times? I once directed it at the school where I taught; I played in it myself; I’ve seen them at operas and in amateur theaters. And I still love her, in the end I’m always excited: maybe Chino will miss this time!
But it stays the same: “Somewhere” remains a dream of a better world. Even 70 years after the premiere, the problems of the immigrants and the police violence are not over.
Unfortunately, the play is as relevant today as it ever was. But you can’t just sit back and give up because of that. You can’t sing that the place for love is nowhere.
West Side Story, Wed., Dec. 14, to Sun., Jan. 8, Munich, German theatre