Arthur Laurents

Arthur Laurents
Laurents in 2009
Born	Arthur Levine (1917-07-14)July 14, 1917 Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
Died	May 5, 2011(2011-05-05) (aged 93) New York City, New York,[1] U.S.
Resting place	under a memorial bench in Quogue, New York[2]
Occupation	Playwright Stage director Screenwriter
Language	English
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Cornell University
Period	1945–2011
Notable awards	1968 Tony Award for Best Musical – Hallelujah, Baby! 1975 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical – Gypsy 1977 Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay – The Turning Point 1984 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical – La Cage aux Folles
Partner	Tom Hatcher (c. 1954; d. 2006)

Arthur Laurents (July 14, 1917 – May 5, 2011) was an American playwright, stage director and screenwriter.^[3]

After writing scripts for radio shows after college and then training films for the U.S. Army during World War II, Laurents turned to writing for Broadway, producing a body of work that includes West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), and Hallelujah, Baby! (1967), and directing some of his own shows and other Broadway productions.

His early film scripts include Rope (1948) for Alfred Hitchcock, followed by Anastasia (1956), Bonjour Tristesse (1958), The Way We Were (1973), and The Turning Point (1977).

Contents

• 
  1 Early life
  


• 
  2 Theatrical career
  


• 
  3 Film career
  


• 
  4 Blacklist
  


• 
  5 Memoirs
  


• 
  6 Death
  


• 
  7 Work
  
  
  
  • 
    7.1 Writing
    
  
  
  • 
    7.2 Directing
    
  
  
  • 
    7.3 Additional credits
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  8 Awards, nominations and honors
  


• 
  9 See also
  


• 
  10 References
  


• 
  11 Further reading
  


• 
  12 External links
  

Early life

Born Arthur Levine, Laurents was the son of middle-class Jewish parents, a lawyer and a schoolteacher who gave up her career when she married.^[4][5] He was born and raised in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, New York, the elder of two children, and attended Erasmus Hall High School.^[6][7] His sister Edith suffered from chorea as a child.^[8]

His paternal grandparents were Orthodox Jews, and his mother's parents, although born Jewish, were atheists. His mother kept a kosher home for her husband's sake, but was lax about attending synagogue and observing the Jewish holidays. His Bar Mitzvah marked the end of Laurents's religious education and the beginning of his rejection of all fundamentalist religions,^[9] although he continued to identify himself as Jewish.^[10] However, late in life he admitted to having changed his last name from Levine to the less Jewish-sounding Laurents, "to get a job."^[4]

After graduating from Cornell University, Laurents took an evening class in radio writing at New York University. William N. Robson, his instructor, a CBS Radio director/producer, submitted his script Now Playing Tomorrow, a comedic fantasy about clairvoyance, to the network, and it was produced in the Columbia Workshop series on January 30, 1939, with Shirley Booth in the lead role. It was Laurents' first professional credit. The show's success led to him being hired to write scripts for various radio shows, among them Lux Radio Theater.^[11] Laurents' career was interrupted when he was drafted into the U.S. Army in the middle of World War II. Through a series of clerical errors, he never saw battle, but instead was assigned to the U.S. Army Pictorial Service located in a film studio in Astoria, Queens, where he wrote training films and met, among others, George Cukor and William Holden. He later was reassigned to write plays for Armed Service Force Presents, a radio show that dramatized the contributions of all branches of the armed forces.^[12]

Theatrical career

According to John Clum, "Laurents was always a mirror of his times. Through his best work, one sees a staged history of leftist, gender, and gay politics in the decades after World War II."^[13] After graduating from Cornell University in 1937, Laurents went to work as a writer for radio drama at CBS in New York. His military duties during World War II, which consisted of writing training films and radio scripts for Armed Service Force Presents, brought him into contact with some of the best film directors—distinguished director George Cukor directed his first script. Laurents's work in radio and film during World War II was an excellent apprenticeship for a budding playwright and screenwriter. He also had the good fortune to be based in New York City. His first stage play, Home of the Brave, was produced in 1945. The sale of the play to a film studio gave Laurents the entrée he needed to become a Hollywood screenwriter though he continued, with mixed success, to write plays. The most important of his early screenplays is his adaptation of Rope for Alfred Hitchcock.^[14]

Soon after being discharged from the Army, Laurents met ballerina Nora Kaye, and the two became involved in an on-again, off-again romantic relationship. While Kaye was on tour with Fancy Free, Laurents continued to write for the radio but was becoming discontented with the medium. At the urging of Martin Gabel, he spent nine consecutive nights writing a play In 1962, Laurents directed I Can Get It for You Wholesale, which helped to turn then-unknown Barbra Streisand into a star. His next project was the stage musical Anyone Can Whistle, which he directed and for which he wrote the book, but it proved to be an infamous flop. He later had success with the musicals Hallelujah, Baby! (written for Lena Horne^[15] but ultimately starring Leslie Uggams) and La Cage Aux Folles (1983), which he directed, however Nick & Nora was not successful.

In 2008, Laurents directed a Broadway revival of Gypsy starring Patti LuPone, and in 2009, he tackled a bilingual revival of West Side Story, with Spanish translations of some dialogue and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. While preparing West Side Story, he noted, "The musical theatre and cultural conventions of 1957 made it next to impossible for the characters to have authenticity."^[16] Following the production's March 19 opening at the Palace Theatre, Ben Brantley of The New York Times called the translations "an only partly successful experiment" and added, "Mr. Laurents has exchanged insolence for innocence and, as with most such bargains, there are dividends and losses."^[17] The national tour (2011-2012) was directed by David Saint, who was Laurents' assistant director on the Broadway production. The Spanish lyrics and dialog were reduced from about 18% of the total to about 10%.^[18]

Film career

Laurents' first Hollywood experience proved to be a frustrating disappointment. Director Anatole Litvak, unhappy with the script submitted by Frank Partos and Millen Brand for The Snake Pit (1948), hired Laurents to rewrite it. Partos and Brand later insisted the bulk of the shooting script was theirs, and produced carbon copies of many of the pages Laurents actually had written to bolster their claim. Having destroyed the original script and all his notes and rewritten pages after completing the project, Laurents had no way to prove most of the work was his, and the Writers Guild of America denied him screen credit. Brand later confessed he and Partos had copied scenes written by Laurents and apologized for his role in the deception. Four decades later, Laurents learned he was ineligible for WGA health benefits because he had failed to accumulate enough credits to qualify. He was short by one, the one he failed to get for The Snake Pit.^[19]

Upon hearing 20th Century Fox executives were pleased with Laurents' work on The Snake Pit, Alfred Hitchcock hired him for his next project, the film Rope starring James Stewart. Hitchcock wanted Laurents to Americanize the British play Rope (1929) by Patrick Hamilton for the screen. With his then-lover Farley Granger set to star, Laurents was happy to accept the assignment. His dilemma was how to make the audience aware of the fact the three main characters were homosexual without blatantly saying so. The Hays Office kept close tabs on his work, and the final script was so discreet that Laurents was unsure whether co-star James Stewart ever realized that his character was gay.^[20] In later years, Hitchcock asked him to script both Torn Curtain (1966) and Topaz (1969), However, Laurents, in both cases unenthused by the material, declined the offers.^[21]

Laurents also scripted Anastasia (1956) and Bonjour Tristesse (1958). The Way We Were (1973), in which he incorporated many of his own experiences, particularly those with the HUAC, reunited him with Barbra Streisand, and The Turning Point (1977), inspired in part by his love for Nora Kaye, was directed by her husband Herbert Ross. The Fox animated feature film Anastasia (1997) was based in part from his screenplay of the live-action 1956 film of the same title.^[22]

Blacklist

Because of a casual remark made by Russel Crouse, Laurents was called to Washington, D.C., to account for his political views.^[23] He explained himself to the House Un-American Activities Committee, and his appearance had no obvious impact on his career, which at the time was primarily in the theatre. When the McCarran Internal Security Act, which prohibited individuals suspected of engaging in subversive activities from obtaining a passport, was passed in 1950, Laurents and Granger immediately applied for and received passports and departed for Paris with Harold Clurman and his wife Stella Adler. Laurents and Granger remained abroad, traveling throughout Europe and northern Africa, for about 18 months.^[24]

Years earlier, Laurents and Jerome Robbins had developed Look Ma, I'm Dancin'! (1948), a stage musical about the world of ballet that ran for 188 performances on Broadway, and starred Nancy Walker and Harold Lang. (Although the musical was ultimately produced with a book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, as Laurents left the project.)^[25][26] Robbins approached Paramount Pictures about directing a screen version, and the studio agreed as long as Laurents was not part of the package.

It was not until then that Laurents learned he officially had been blacklisted, primarily because a review of Home of the Brave had been published in the Daily Worker. He decided to return to Paris, but the State Department refused to renew his passport. Laurents spent three months trying to clear his name, and after submitting a lengthy letter explaining his political beliefs in detail, it was determined they were so idiosyncratic he could not have been a member of any subversive groups. Within a week his passport was renewed, and the following day he sailed for Europe on the Ile de France. While on board, he received a cable from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer offering him a screenwriting assignment. The blacklist had ended.^[27]

Memoirs

Laurents wrote Original Story By Arthur Laurents: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood, published in 2000. In it, he discusses his lengthy career and his many gay affairs and long-term relationships, including those with Farley Granger and Tom Hatcher (August 24, 1929 - October 26, 2006). Hatcher was an aspiring actor whom Gore Vidal suggested Laurents seek out at the Beverly Hills men's clothing store Hatcher was managing at the time. The couple remained together for 52 years until Hatcher's death on October 26, 2006.^[28]

Laurents wrote Mainly on Directing: Gypsy, West Side Story and Other Musicals, published in 2009, in which he discussed musicals he directed and the work of other directors he admired.

His last memoir titled The Rest of the Story was published posthumously in September 2012.

Death

Laurents died at the age of 93 at his home in Manhattan on May 5, 2011 of pneumonia complications, as reported by The New York Times.^[29] Following a long tradition, Broadway theatre lights were dimmed at 8 p.m. on May 6, 2011, for one minute in his memory.^[30] His ashes were buried alongside those of Tom Hatcher in a memorial bench in Quogue, Long Island, New York.^[2]

Work

Writing

Musicals

• 
  West Side Story – 1957 – Tony Nomination for Best Musical
  


• 
  Gypsy – 1959 – Tony Nomination for Best Musical
  


• 
  Anyone Can Whistle – 1964


• 
  Do I Hear a Waltz? – 1965


• 
  Hallelujah, Baby! – 1967 – Tony Award for Best Musical
  


• 
  The Madwoman of Central Park West – 1979


• 
  Nick & Nora – 1991

Novel

• 
  The Turning Point – 1977; New American Library (New York City); .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
  OCLC 11014907
  

Plays

• 
  Home of the Brave – 1945


• 
  The Bird Cage – 1950


• 
  The Time of the Cuckoo – 1952


• 
  A Clearing in the Woods – 1957


• 
  Invitation to a March – 1960

Directing

• 
  Invitation to a March – 1960


• 
  I Can Get It for You Wholesale – 1962


• 
  Anyone Can Whistle – 1964


• 
  Gypsy – 1974 – Tony Nomination for Best Direction of a Musical


• 
  The Madwoman of Central Park West – 1979


• 
  La Cage aux Folles – 1983 – Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical


• 
  Nick & Nora – 1991


• 
  Gypsy – 2008 – Tony Award nomination as Best Director of a Musical


• 
  West Side Story – 2009 Broadway Revival

Additional credits

• 
  Anna Lucasta (screenwriter)


• 
  A Clearing in the Woods (playwright)


• 
  Invitation to a March (playwright, director)


• 
  The Madwoman of Central Park West (playwright, director)


• 
  My Good Name (playwright)


• 
  Jolson Sings Again (playwright)


• 
  The Enclave (playwright, director)


• 
  Radical Mystique (playwright, director)


• 
  Big Potato (playwright)


• 
  Two Lives (playwright)


• 
  My Good Name (playwright)


• 
  Claudia Lazlo (playwright)


• 
  Attacks on the Heart (playwright)


• 
  2 Lives (playwright)


• 
  New Year's Eve (playwright)


• 
  Come Back, Come Back, Wherever You Are (playwright, director)


• 
  Caught (screenwriter)


• 
  Rope (screenwriter)

Awards, nominations and honors

A new award was established in 2010, The Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award. This is awarded annually "for an un-produced, full-length play of social relevance by an emerging American playwright." The Laurents/Hatcher Foundation will give $50,000 to the writer with a grant of $100,000 towards production costs at a nonprofit theatre. The first award will be given in 2011.^[31]

Theatre

• 1958 Tony Award for Best Musical (West Side Story, nominee)


• 1960 Tony Award for Best Musical (Gypsy, nominee)


• 1968 Tony Award for Best Musical (Hallelujah, Baby!, winner)


• 1975 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical (Gypsy, winner)


• 1975 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical (Gypsy, nominee)


• 1984 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical (La Cage aux Folles, winner)


• 2008 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical (Gypsy, nominee)

Film

• 
  Academy Award for Best Picture (The Turning Point, nominee)
  


• 
  Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (The Turning Point, nominee)


• 
  Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay (Rope, nominee)


• 
  Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay (The Turning Point, nominee)


• 
  Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay (The Way We Were, nominee; The Turning Point, winner)


• 
  National Board of Review Award for Career Achievement (winner)

See also

• 
  Biography portal
  


• 
  Film portal
  


• 
  Musical Theatre portal
  


• 
  Theatre portal
  


• 
  Writing portal
  

• List of Jewish American playwrights


• List of novelists from the United States


• List of pneumonia victims


• List of people from Brooklyn, New York


• List of playwrights from the United States


• List of theatre directors

References

1. 
   ^ "Legendary Writer & Director Arthur Laurents Dies at 93". Broadway World. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
   


2. 
   ^ ^ab John M. Clum. The Works of Arthur Laurents: Politics, Love, and Betrayal. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2014.
   


3. 
   ^ "Obituaries: Arthur Laurents". The Daily Telegraph. May 6, 2011.
   


4. 
   ^ ^ab "When You’re a Shark You’re a Shark All the Way". New York.
   


5. 
   ^ Hawtree, Christopher (May 6, 2011). "Arthur Laurents obituary: Playwright and screenwriter who wrote the book for West Side Story". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
   


6. 
   ^ Hutchinson, Bill (May 6, 2011). "Playwright Behind 'West Side Story' and 'Gypsy,' Arthur Laurents, Dies at Age 93". Daily News.
   


7. 
   ^ Arnold, Laurence (May 5, 2011). "Arthur Laurents, Writer of 'West Side Story,' 'Gypsy' Scripts, Dies at 93". Bloomberg News.
   


8. 
   ^ Laurents, Arthur. "Beginnings" Original Story By Arthur Laurents: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood, Hal Leonard Corporation, 2001,
   ISBN 1-55783-467-9, pp. 10–11, 34–35.
   


9. 
   ^ Laurents, Arthur. Original Story By. New York: Alfred A. Knopf (2000).
   ISBN 0-375-40055-9, pp. 6–7.
   


10. 
    ^ Laurents, p. 133.
    


11. 
    ^ Laurents, pp. 12–13.
    


12. 
    ^ Laurents, pp. 22–28.
    


13. 
    ^ Clum, John, "The Works of Arthur Laurents: Politics, Love, and Betrayal", November 2014, Cambria Press,
    ISBN 1604978848
    


14. 
    ^ Clum, John, "The Works of Arthur Laurents: Politics, Love, and Betrayal"
    


15. 
    ^ Laurents, p. 93.
    


16. 
    ^ Jones, Kenneth (July 16, 2008). "'West Side Story', This Time With Bilingual Approach, Will Return to Broadway in February 2009". Playbill.
    


17. 
    ^ Brantley, Ben (March 20, 2009). "Our Gangs". The New York Times.
    


18. 
    ^ Berson, M. (January 8, 2012). "'West Side Story': A classic revived" Archived January 12, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Seattle Times.
    


19. 
    ^ Laurents, pp. 106–120.
    


20. 
    ^ Laurents, pp. 115–116, 124–131.
    


21. 
    ^ Laurents, p. 136.
    


22. 
    ^ ""West Side Story Author Arthur Laurents Dies, 93" Archived July 9, 2012, at Archive.today forum.bcdb.com. May 4, 2011.
    


23. 
    ^ Laurents, p. 29.
    


24. 
    ^ Laurents, pp. 165–190.
    


25. 
    ^ Vaill, Amanda (2006). Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins, Random House, Inc. p. 135.
    ISBN 0-7679-0420-6.
    


26. 
    ^ "'Look Ma, I'm Dancin' listing". Internet Broadway Database.
    


27. 
    ^ Laurents, pp. 286–289.
    


28. 
    ^ "Backstage.com obituary, November 1, 2006". Backstage.
    


29. 
    ^ Berkvist, Robert (May 5, 2011). "Arthur Laurents, Playwright and Director on Broadway, Dies at 93". The New York Times.
    


30. 
    ^ Jones, Kenneth (May 6, 2011). "Broadway Lights Will Dim May 6 in Memory of Arthur Laurents" Archived October 21, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Playbill.
    


31. 
    ^ Gans, Andrew (June 3, 2010). "New Award Named for Arthur Laurents and His Partner, the Late Tom Hatcher" Archived June 5, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Playbill.
    

Further reading

• Laurents, Arthur (2000). Original Story by Arthur Laurents: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood. New York: Knopf.
  ISBN 0-375-40055-9.


• Laurents, Arthur (2009). Mainly on Directing: Gypsy, West Side Story, and Other Musicals. New York: Knopf.
  ISBN 0-307-27088-2.


• Clum, John (2014). The Works of Arthur Laurents: Politics, Love, and Betrayal. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press.
  ISBN 978-1-60497-884-1.

External links

• 
  Arthur Laurents at the Internet Broadway Database
  


• Arthur Laurents at the Internet Off-Broadway Database


• 
  Arthur Laurents on IMDb


• American Theatre Wing biography


• 
  Works by or about Arthur Laurents in libraries (WorldCat catalog)


• 
  Works by Arthur Laurents at Open Library
  

v t e Works by Arthur Laurents
Writer	Musicals West Side Story (1957) Gypsy (1959) Anyone Can Whistle (1964) Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965) Hallelujah, Baby! (1967) The Madwoman of Central Park West (1979) Nick & Nora (1991) Plays Home of the Brave (1945) The Time of the Cuckoo (1952) Films Rope (1948) Caught (1949) Anastasia (1956) Bonjour Tristesse (1958) The Way We Were (1973) The Turning Point (1977)
Director	I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1962) Anyone Can Whistle (1964) Gypsy (1974) The Madwoman of Central Park West (1979) La Cage aux Folles (1983) Birds of Paradise (1987) Gypsy (1989) Nick & Nora (1991) Gypsy (2008) West Side Story (2009)

Awards for Arthur Laurents

v t e Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical Arthur Laurents (1975) Michael Bennett (1976) Martin Charnin (1977) Peter Masterson and Tommy Tune (1978) Harold Prince (1979) Harold Prince (1980) Wilford Leach (1981) Tommy Tune (1982) George Abbott (1983) James Lapine (1984) Wilford Leach (1986) Mike Ockrent (1987) Harold Prince (1988) Tommy Tune (1990) Scott Ellis (1991) Jerry Zaks (1992) Des McAnuff (1993) Nicholas Hytner (1994) Harold Prince (1995) Christopher Renshaw (1996) Walter Bobbie (1997) Julie Taymor (1998) Matthew Bourne (1999) Michael Blakemore (2000) Susan Stroman (2001) Michael Mayer (2002) Jack O'Brien (2003) Joe Mantello (2004) James Lapine (2005) John Doyle (2006) Michael Mayer (2007) Bartlett Sher (2008) Stephen Daldry (2009) Michael Mayer (2010) Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker (2011) John Tiffany (2012) Diane Paulus (2013) Darko Tresnjak (2014) Thomas Kail (2015) John Doyle / Bartlett Sher (2016) Rachel Chavkin / David Cromer (2017) Tina Landau (2018) v t e Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical Joshua Logan (1950) George S. Kaufman (1951) Moss Hart (1957) George Abbott (1960) Gower Champion (1961) Abe Burrows (1962) George Abbott (1963) Gower Champion (1964) Jerome Robbins (1965) Albert Marre (1966) Harold Prince (1967) Gower Champion (1968) Peter H. Hunt (1969) Ron Field (1970) Harold Prince (1971) Harold Prince and Michael Bennett (1972) Bob Fosse (1973) Harold Prince (1974) Geoffrey Holder (1975) Michael Bennett (1976) Gene Saks (1977) Richard Maltby Jr. (1978) Harold Prince (1979) Harold Prince (1980) Wilford Leach (1981) Tommy Tune (1982) Trevor Nunn (1983) Arthur Laurents (1984) Des McAnuff (1985) Wilford Leach (1986) Trevor Nunn and John Caird (1987) Harold Prince (1988) Jerome Robbins (1989) Tommy Tune (1990) Tommy Tune (1991) Jerry Zaks (1992) Des McAnuff (1993) Nicholas Hytner (1994) Harold Prince (1995) George C. Wolfe (1996) Walter Bobbie (1997) Julie Taymor (1998) Matthew Bourne (1999) Michael Blakemore (2000) Susan Stroman (2001) John Rando (2002) Jack O'Brien (2003) Joe Mantello (2004) Mike Nichols (2005) John Doyle (2006) Michael Mayer (2007) Bartlett Sher (2008) Stephen Daldry (2009) Terry Johnson (2010) Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker (2011) John Tiffany (2012) Diane Paulus (2013) Darko Tresnjak (2014) Sam Gold (2015) Thomas Kail (2016) Christopher Ashley (2017) David Cromer (2018) v t e Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay Original Drama (1969–1983, retired) William Goldman (1969) Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North (1970) Penelope Gilliatt (1971) Jeremy Larner (1972) Steve Shagan (1973) Robert Towne (1974) Frank Pierson (1975) Paddy Chayefsky (1976) Arthur Laurents (1977) Nancy Dowd, Robert C. Jones and Waldo Salt (1978) Mike Gray, T. S. Cook and James Bridges (1979) Bo Goldman (1980) Warren Beatty and Trevor Griffiths (1981) Melissa Mathison (1982) Horton Foote (1983) Original Comedy (1969–1983, retired) Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker (1969) Neil Simon (1970) Paddy Chayefsky (1971) Peter Bogdanovich, Buck Henry, David Newman and Robert Benton (1972) Melvin Frank and Jack Rose (1973) Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor and Alan Uger (1974) Robert Towne and Warren Beatty (1975) Bill Lancaster (1976) Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman (1977) Larry Gelbart and Sheldon Keller (1978) Steve Tesich (1979) Nancy Meyers, Harvey Miller and Charles Shyer (1980) Steve Gordon (1981) Don McGuire, Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal (1982) Lawrence Kasdan and Barbara Benedek (1983) Original Screenplay (1984–present) Woody Allen (1984) William Kelley and Earl W. Wallace (1985) Woody Allen (1986) John Patrick Shanley (1987) Ron Shelton (1988) Woody Allen (1989) Barry Levinson (1990) Callie Khouri (1991) Neil Jordan (1992) Jane Campion (1993) Richard Curtis (1994) Randall Wallace (1995) Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (1996) James L. Brooks and Mark Andrus (1997) Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard (1998) Alan Ball (1999) Kenneth Lonergan (2000) Julian Fellowes (2001) Michael Moore (2002) Sofia Coppola (2003) Charlie Kaufman (2004) Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco (2005) Michael Arndt (2006) Diablo Cody (2007) Dustin Lance Black (2008) Mark Boal (2009) Christopher Nolan (2010) Woody Allen (2011) Mark Boal (2012) Spike Jonze (2013) Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness (2014) Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (2015) Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney (2016) Jordan Peele (2017)

v t e Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's West Side Story (1957)
Characters	Maria
Inspiration	William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
Adaptations	West Side Story (1961 film) West Side Story Suite (1995 ballet)
Variations	Deaf Side Story (c. 2002 musical) Swango (2002 musical) West Bank Story (2005 parody film)
Songs	Act 1 "Something's Coming" "Maria" "Tonight" "America" "Cool" "One Hand, One Heart" "Tonight (Quintet & Chorus)" Act 2 "I Feel Pretty" "Somewhere" "Gee, Officer Krupke" "A Boy Like That"
Albums	West Side Story (1957 original cast) West Side Story (1959 Previn) West Side Story (1961 soundtrack) West Side Story (1961 Tjader) Bernstein Plays Brubeck Plays Bernstein (1961 Brubeck Quartet) West Side Story (1962 Peterson Trio) Kenton's West Side Story (1962 Kenton) Toshiko–Mariano Quartet (in West Side) (1963 Akiyoshi) West Side Story (1974 Earl Hines)
Related	"The First Time" "Upper West Side Story" Wild Side Story China Girl "Roses" Play It Again Josh Superjail!

Authority control	BNE: XX1122852 BNF: cb140368976 (data) GND: 123286352 ISNI: 0000 0001 1025 0247 LCCN: n85173003 MusicBrainz: e062e9c9-5fd4-4384-ba1d-71495ce3bb7d NKC: xx0026607 SNAC: w6gf56zk SUDOC: 058478094 VIAF: 37116781 WorldCat Identities (via VIAF): 37116781

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