Ready to Rumble: Ballet West’s ‘West Side Story: Broadway & Beyond’ is full of LGBTQ+ connections
Utah’s LGBTQ+ community can find plenty to connect with in Ballet West’s “West Side Story: Broadway and Beyond,” which not only showcases the work of two globally famous gay choreographers but also features ancient Greek and contemporary queer connections.
“Both [choreographers], Jerome Robbins and Christopher Wheeldon, have had renowned careers both on the Broadway stage, but also in the ballet world,” said Ballet West Artistic Director Adam Sklute.
Indeed, Robbins (1918–1998) won Tony Awards for choreographing the original Broadway runs of “Fiddler on the Roof,” “High Button Shoes,” and “West Side Story” (the latter co-choreographed with Peter Gennaro). Wheeldon, a 53-year-old U.K. native, won choreography Tony Awards for the Michael Jackson musical “MJ” in 2022 and “An American in Paris” in 2015.
All four of the featured pieces in “West Side Story: Broadway and Beyond” were originally created for the New York City Ballet. On the showbiz “Broadway” side are Wheeldon’s 2005 duet “Carousel: A Dance” featuring music from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Carousel,” plus Robbins’ “West Side Story Suite.”
The “Beyond” pieces are more abstract contemporary ballets. Wheeldon’s “After the Rain Pas de Deux” is drawn from a larger 2002 work featuring music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. Robbins created “Antique Epigraphs” in 1984 for an ensemble of eight women inspired by classical Greek friezes, and it features an orchestrated version of Claude Debussy’s “Six Epigraphes Antiques.” This 1914 piano piece was written to accompany Pierre Louys’ “Chansons de Bilitis,” which are French interpretations of ancient Sappho’s poetry.
The most famous of the four pieces is “West Side Story Suite,” which premiered in 1995. It’s an outgrowth of the 1989 Tony Award-winning stage revue “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway,” which concluded its first act with a suite of dances from the iconic 1957 musical “West Side Story” by gay or bisexual creators Robbins (original concept, direction and choreography), Arthur Laurents (book), Leonard Bernstein (score) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics).
Robbins notably added new choreography to the “West Side Story Suite” by including “Something’s Coming.” This early Act I song is typically just sung, not danced, in the musical by the updated “Romeo and Juliet” character, Tony.
Gay dancer Robert La Fosse played Tony in both “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway” and the 1995 debut of “West Side Story Suite.” Sklute said La Fosse will be in Salt Lake to help reset “West Side Story Suite” on Ballet West’s dancers.
“Ours is a company of theatrical artists,” said Sklute about the Ballet West ensemble tackling “West Side Story Suite.” “They get to be dancers, but they also get to be characters and individuals.”
Ballet West usually doesn’t conduct singing auditions. But Sklute said vocal tryouts are part of the licensing agreement for any ballet company staging “West Side Story Suite.”
“The dancers have to sing ‘Somewhere’ at the very end,” Sklute said. “A number of the women sing ‘America,’ and Riff has to sing ‘Cool’ and dance it, too.”
For the “West Side Story Suite,” Ballet West is also bringing in high-profile guest artists.
Georgina Pazcoguin, a former New York City Ballet dancer and veteran of the 2016 Broadway revival of “Cats,” is set to play the role of Anita (she sings and leads the rousing Act I number “America”). Pazcoguin learned the role of Anita in “West Side Story Suite” in part from the late Chita Rivera (1933–2024), who created the role on Broadway.
Ballet West is also welcoming Salt Lake native and former New York City Ballet dancer Robert Fairchild to play Tony, the romantic lead. Fairchild is a 2015 Best Actor Tony Award nominee who starred as Gene Kelly’s Jerry Mulligan in Wheeldon’s “An American in Paris” in Paris, New York, London, and many cities across Australia. There’s another “Cats” connection, since Fairchild starred as Munkustrap in the 2019 film version.
Fairchild also has publicly come out of the closet after a 3-year heterosexual marriage ended in 2017. Fairchild recently discussed his past as a former convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who enrolled himself in conversion therapy at the age of 19 in a January 2026 episode of Louis DeFelice’s ballet podcast “Notes on Stage.”
“It always comes down to the cast, and I felt like we have a great company for this,” Sklute said. “I started in musical theater before I even started dancing, so I really connected with (‘West Side Story Suite’) when it entered the repertoire of New York City Ballet in the 1990s. I thought one day we should be doing this at Ballet West.”
“West Side Story: Broadway & Beyond” plays six performances only from April 10 to 18 at the Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 S., Salt Lake City. Tickets are $36–115. Call 801-869-6920 or visit SaltLakeCountyArts.org/events or BalletWest.org.
