Back in 1961, Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins' Hollywood film, "West Side Story," became something of a worldwide sensation when it won 10 Oscars — still the most ever for a big-screen adaptation of a musical.
Among the fans of that groundbreaking teen tragedy about love and ethnic tensions in a tough 1950s New York neighborhood, young women the world over idolized one of its stars in particular — George Chakiris, who played Bernardo, the leader of a gang who many likely wished could step out from the screen, kick his long legs in the air and sing and dance in front of their eyes.
Now, at the IHI Stage Around Tokyo theater in the Toyosu waterfront district of Koto Ward, that dream is coming as close to reality as it's ever likely to be.