When West Side Story opened in 1957, it marked the crowning achievement of four of Broadway's most successful off-stage personalities, song-writers Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, choreographer Jerome Robbins, and playwright Arthur Laurents. An artistic triumph of the first magnitude, West Side Story also prospered at the box-office. The total number of performances in New York was only 27 short of the magic 'one thousand mark'. On 12 December, 1958, West Side Story received unqualified acclaim in London at its premiere there.
