Legendary West Side Story writer Arthur Laurents dies aged 93

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 10:53 EST, 6 May 2011

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Arthur Laurents, the playwright who penned stage musicals including West Side Story and Gypsy, has died at the age of 93.

The director and screenwriter, who had an extensive career in radio and in Hollywood, died at his home in Manhattan from complications of pneumonia, according to his agent Jonathan Lomma.

It was on Broadway that Mr Laurents achieved his biggest successes, providing the storyline for two of the most popular musicals ever written.

Legend: Arthur Laurents, centre, who wrote West Side Story and Gypsy, has died at his Manhattan home at the age of 93

Hit: The musical is one of the most successful ever and the 1961 film also won a host of Oscars

West Side Story, which opened on Broadway in 1957, transformed Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet into musical theatre.

It featured the jazz-flecked music of Leonard Bernstein and direction and choreography of Jerome Robbins and told the love story of the leader of one gang in New York who falls for the sister of his rival.

Robbins also directed and choreographed the 1959 musical Gypsy, based on the memoirs of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee.

Gypsy has been successfully revived four times on Broadway; first in 1974 with Angela Lansbury as Rose, then with Tyne Daly in 1989 - both of which were directed by Mr Laurents - and Bernadette Peters in 2003.

Mr Laurents was back as director for the 2008 Broadway version, with Patti LuPone as Rose. The production won Tony awards for LuPone and he was nominated for best director, but did not win.

In 2009, Laurents directed a revised version of his classic West Side Story, with much of the dialogue in Spanish.

Among his other credits as a stage director was I Can Get It For You Wholesale, best remembered as the introduction of a 19-year-old Barbra Streisand to Broadway in 1962, and La Cage Aux Folles in 1983 which became a smash hit musical for four years.

Born in Brooklyn, Laurents attended Cornell University after graduating began writing radio plays including scripts for popular series like Dr Christian and The Thin Man.

While serving int he army during World War Two, he wrote military training films as well as scripts for radio programs including Army Service Forces Present and Assignment Home.

Classic: West Side Story, made into a film in 1961, is the story of a New York gang leader who falls for the sister of one his rivals

Broadway success: Mr Laurents with Patti LuPone at the opening night of the 2008 remake of Gypsy on Broadway, which he directed

His wartime experiences led to his first Broadway play - Home of the Brave - which opened in December 1945.

The military drama, which dealt with anti-Semitism, had a short run but was made into a well-received film where the main theme was changed to racial rather than religious prejudice.

After the war, Laurents wrote scripts for films including Rope - Alfred Hitchcock's take on the Leopold-Loeb murder - The Snake Pit and Caught.

He returned to New York theatre in 1950 and had one of his biggest successes, The Time of the Cuckoo, in 1952. The comedy was later made into a film Summertime, starring Katharine Hepburn.

His biggest film successes occurred in the 1970s, first as screenwriter for The Way We Were starring Robert Redford and Streisand, then for the script of The Turning Point in 1977.

But he also suffered some flops as well, including his 1964 Anyone Can Whistle which lasted only nine performances and the 1991 musical Nick and Nora, which only opened for a week.