Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein was a world-famous conductor who also wrote some of Broadway's most ambitious scores. Our library includes two of them: On the Town and West Side Story.

Who was Leonard Bernstein?

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) was a composer, conductor, pianist, and teacher. He led the New York Philharmonic as music director from 1958 to 1969 and explained classical music to millions of children through his televised Young People's Concerts on CBS.

On Broadway he worked with top collaborators: lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green, choreographer Jerome Robbins, playwright Arthur Laurents, and a young Stephen Sondheim. His theatre music mixes symphonic writing with jazz, Latin dance rhythms, and popular song, so a single score can move from a hushed ballad to a mambo to a complex fugue.

Leonard Bernstein's Broadway shows in order

On the Town (1944) grew out of the ballet Fancy Free, which he wrote with Jerome Robbins earlier that year, and it made Bernstein a Broadway composer at 26. He wrote songs for a 1950 production of Peter Pan, then reunited with Comden and Green for Wonderful Town (1953), a comedy about two sisters from Ohio in Greenwich Village.

Candide (1956), a comic operetta based on Voltaire with lyrics mostly by poet Richard Wilbur, closed after 73 performances, though its overture became a concert favorite. West Side Story (1957) moved Romeo and Juliet to New York's Upper West Side. Later stage works included Mass (1971), written for the opening of the Kennedy Center, and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (1976) with Alan Jay Lerner, a quick flop. He also wrote the score for the film On the Waterfront (1954).

Legacy, awards, and where to start

Wonderful Town won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1953. West Side Story won two Tonys but lost Best Musical to The Music Man; its 1961 film won ten Academy Awards, and Steven Spielberg made a second film in 2021. A 1974 revival of Candide directed by Harold Prince won four Tonys and gave the show new life. Bernstein received a Special Tony Award in 1969, along with many Emmy and Grammy Awards across his career.

Start with West Side Story, through either film or the original cast recording. Then listen to On the Town for his playful side, and the Candide overture for his gift for sparkling orchestral writing.

Leonard Bernstein: frequently asked questions

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