The landmark musical West Side Story plays the National Theatre en route to Broadway, directed by two-time Tony Award winning librettist Arthur Laurents.

The show transports Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to the turbulent streets of the Upper West Side in 1950's New York City. Two star-crossed lovers, Tony and Maria, find themselves caught between the rival street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds, the "Jets" and the "Sharks."

The show features a book by Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The original Jerome Robbins choreography will be restaged by Tony Award nominee Joey McKneely.

This production, with an onstage cast of 37 and 30 musicians in the orchestra pit, will introduce the unprecedented element of selectively weaving Spanish throughout both the book and songs.