'West Side Story' Broadway Revival Will Cut Two Beloved Songs

The classic musical West Side Story is coming back to Broadway next month, but it’s going to be a very different version than the one you know.

Director Ivo Van Hove, who won the Tony Award for his recent revival of the play A View From the Bridge and just directed Network on Broadway, is re-imagining the show for the 21st century.

“When I listened to it again, when I read it again, I discovered this very brutal world, a divided world where people search for unity by exclusion of the other—the person who is not like you,” van Hove told Vogue. “It seemed as if it were written yesterday. So that’s our aspiration: to make a West Side Story for the 21st century.”

The show has been trimmed to be performed without an intermission and that means that some songs have been cut. The revival will not feature the “Somewhere” ballet or “I Feel Pretty” and the cuts have been approved by the creators’ estates.

Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the lyrics for the musical’s score, has said he was uncomfortable with some of the lyrics in “I Feel Pretty,” so he likely is okay with the cut too!

West Side Story will star Isaac Powell and newcomer Shereen Pimentel. Preview performances begin on December 10 ahead of an opening night on February 6.