Ziegfeld to Screen West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and Chicago

The film versions of West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and Chicago, three of the most highly acclaimed Hollywood adaptations of Broadway musicals, will be screened at the Ziegfeld Theatre on West 54th Street in Manhattan from February 10 through 16 as part of a five-week Hollywood Classics series.

West Side Story (1961) has music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a screenplay by Ernest Lehman, based on Arthur Laurents’s book for the Broadway show. The film stars Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno, and George Chakiris in the roles that were created on Broadway by Carol Lawrence, Larry Kert, Chita Rivera, and Ken Le Roy, respectively; Wood’s singing voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon, Beymer’s by Jim Bryant, Moreno’s in whole or in part by Betty Wand. West Side Story was directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, with choreography by Robbins and an uncredited Peter Gennaro. The film won 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

My Fair Lady (1964) stars Rex Harrison in his stage role of Henry Higgins and Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle, the role that had been played in the original Broadway and London productions of the musical by Julie Andrews. Most of Hepburn’s singing in the film was dubbed by Marni Nixon. My Fair Lady has music by Frederick Loewe and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, who did the screenplay adaptation of his own book for the Broadway musical, based on Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. The film won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Harrison), and Best Director (George Cukor).

Chicago (2002) won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film stars Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, and John C. Reilly in roles that were played in the original Broadway production of the musical by Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera, Jerry Orbach, Mary McCarty, and Barney Martin, respectively. Rivera has a cameo role in the film, which was directed and choreographed by Rob Marshall.

The Ziegfeld is one of the last remaining large, single-screen movie houses in New York City. For showtimes and more information on the theater’s Hollywood Classics series, visit the website www.ClearviewCinemas.com.