It was a summer stock company in Florida and the productions ran for two or three weeks apiece. Mostly, the shows were barely passable since the budgets were cut-rate. By the end of the WSS run, I was fed up with the show, the cast, the backstage staff, the producers and anyone else involved. It was a terrible experience and since I had interned for Leonard Bernstein about a year earlier, I felt that somehow we had let down the Maestro and his work.
On the night of our final performance, the keyboardist, the percussionist and I had dinner together then smoked a joint before cleaning up and dressing for the performance. I went backstage to have a brief pep-talk with the actors playing Maria and Tony. I suggested that we'd had a successful run and they were terrific in their roles but I had an idea for this final performance: instead of Tony dying, he and Maria would walk away from the tragedy and move to Puerto Rico to live out their lives in love.
The actors looked at me and asked, "Are you high?! How are we supposed to do that?"
I said, "Let's improvise and see what happens! It could be epic!"
They rolled their eyes and walked backstage to get into their costumes and makeup. We played the show as written.
Too bad. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
= new reply since forum marked as read
