“Something’s coming, something good,” Tony sings in the first act of “West Side Story,” and he might have been announcing the arrival of what has become one of the most significant shows in American musical history.

With a new tour hitting the Lied Center stage Tuesday night, KU professor of musicology and Broadway historian Paul Laird is offering a pre-performance discussion of the creation of this seminal musical.

“In the early 20th century, the topics of Broadway musicals got more serious,” Laird says. “It started with ‘Showboat’ in 1924, which is pretty serious. Then you have the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals of the ’40s and ’50s, particularly ‘South Pacific,’ which deals with racism in a very serious way.”

“West Side Story,” Laird says, is the culmination of this move toward American musicals that deal with real issues and aren’t just comedies.

“As time goes on, the American musical is taking more and more of its thematic cues from opera,” he says. “You get to ‘West Side Story,’ and there are actually dead bodies onstage. And the whole thing is based on ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ and you can’t get much more serious than that.”

But it isn’t just the sober plot that makes “West Side Story” an important piece of Broadway history.

“What was new about it was the importance of dance,” Laird says. “Dance had been a part of musicals before, but this was the first time it was used to really tell the story.”

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In retrospect, it’s not surprising. The original production was directed by Jerome Robbins, who conceived the idea of retelling “Romeo and Juliet” through a Broadway musical.

“He insisted the entire cast be comprised of professional dancers,” Laird says. “He has teenagers — a group that doesn’t express itself very well through voice — express themselves through dance.”

Of course, Robbins got some help from one of the finest American composers of the 20th century. Leonard Bernstein wrote the score for “West Side Story,” and it’s considered by many to be his finest.

“Certainly, it’s one of his best-remembered,” Laird says, noting that Bernstein used a lot of recurring themes and motifs. “He thought about this score as a symphonic score.”

Bernstein also embraced the popular music of the day, bringing it into a Broadway musical.

“He brought great comfort with jazz concepts to the score,” Laird says. “When people would go out dancing, they would dance to jazz and to Latin music like the cha-cha-cha, the samba, and the mambo. Bernstein understood that music and brought it to a musical in a way it hadn’t been done before.”

Even so, “West Side Story” wasn’t immediately popular.

“People didn’t know what to do with it at first,” Laird says. “Some people called it art, which isn’t what Broadway was supposed to be about. It’s supposed to be commercial. The most successful shows of the time — ‘My Fair Lady’ and ‘The Music Man’ — ran for twice and four times as many performances.

“They’re much safer shows. ‘The Music Man’ is a celebration of what’s good about America, and not just America — white America. You can’t watch ‘West Side Story’ and not think about what’s wrong with our race relations.”

It wasn’t until the 1961 film version that “West Side Story” really became popular.

“That’s when people really recognized it for what it was,” he says.

More than 50 years later, “West Side Story” endures, partially because the story is still relevant today.

“We still have gangs,” Laird says. “We still have youth violence in cities; it hasn’t gone away. And, of course, people still fall in love.”

But it’s more than that, Laird adds. When a beautiful score, exquisite dance, and a timeless story of love all come together, it makes for unforgettable theater.

“When you create real art,” he says, “you continue to recognize the quality of it as the years go by. The shows that last are the ones that are really well put together.”
And so, Tony is right. Something good is coming. It lands at the Lied Center Tuesday night.

“West Side Story” plays one night only at the Lied Center, starting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Laird’s discussion, “The Creation of ‘West Side Story'”, which is free for the public to attend, begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Lied Pavilion. Tickets for the show are available by calling the box office at 785-864-2787 or online at lied.ku.edu.