Combining top talent from Nashville and New York, Studio Tenn Theatre Company concludes its 15/16 season with Broadway blockbuster “West Side Story,” live on stage at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center Friday, June 3 and Saturday, June 4, 2016. Tickets are available at nashvillesymphony.org or by calling the Schermerhorn Box Office at (615) 687-6400.
A modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, “West Side Story” is set in the Upper West Side of 1950s New York, where tensions are mounting between rival gangs the Sharks and the Jets.
Studio Tenn Artistic Director Matt Logan said “West Side Story” is “a musical theatre masterpiece in every regard, from its grand Bernstein score to its revolutionary Jerome Robbins choreography.” The show’s book and lyrics were written by Broadway giants Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim.
Studio Tenn’s production boasts more than 140 performers, including an on-stage choir and orchestra. The cast comprises Nashville’s own Lissa deGuzman as Maria opposite New Yorker Gregory Maheu as Tony. Another local up-and-comer Caleb Marshall plays Sharks leader Bernardo, alongside Mike Cannon as Jett’s leader Riff—a role he also performed in the most recent Broadway revival. Cannon is taking a leave of absence from “Aladdin” on Broadway to do this show, along with Studio Tenn’s “Anita,” Jennifer Rias.
The iconic choreography adapted by Studio Tenn’s Emily Tello Speck will be performed by more than 20 dancers, including Mollie Sansone of the Nashville Ballet and three dancers from New York.
“To mount such a big, epic show is certainly a massive undertaking,” said Logan, who is both directing the show and designing its sets and costumes.
Ambitious though it may be, Studio Tenn believes the time is right to create an original presentation of “West Side Story” for its Middle Tennessee audience. After all, Music City has become a microcosm of the American melting pot over the past several years and now includes one of the fastest-growing Latino population in the nation.
“This evolving social context of the Nashville area makes revisiting and reimagining this piece here and now all the more apropos,” Logan said.
Company Managing Director Jake Speck says Studio Tenn hopes to engage Nashville’s growing community of new Americans in part through its Gift of Theatre program: a charitable arts access initiative launched in 2015 that distributes free tickets to underserved populations through social service agencies.
“We hope this effort helps to break down the economic and cultural barriers that unfortunately prohibit many of our neighbors from experiencing world-class, professional live theatre,” Speck said.
Partner agencies include Boys and Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee, Second Harvest Food Bank, Williamson County CASA and the Hard Bargain Association. Other organizations wishing to provide Gift of Theatre tickets to their constituents are invited to email their allocation requests to [email protected].
Studio Tenn’s “West Side Story” will be performed live on stage at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Downtown Nashville on June 3 and 4, 2016. Showtimes are 7:00 PM on Friday and 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM on Saturday. Tickets are available at nashvillesymphony.org or by calling the Schermerhorn Box Office at (615) 687-6400.
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