Arthur Laurents, the director, playwright and screenwriter who died Thursday at age 93, had long-standing ties to the UNC School of the Arts.
Laurents wrote such enduring stage musicals as "West Side Story" and "Gypsy," as well as the movie classics "Rope" and "The Way We Were."
He died in his sleep at his home in Manhattan from complications of pneumonia, said his agent, Jonathan Lomma. The marquees of all Broadway theaters were dimmed Friday at 8 p.m. in honor of Laurents.
Laurents was a guest artist at the arts school in 2002 and was the commencement speaker in 2006, when he received an honorary doctorate.
He worked with Gerald Freedman, now the dean of the UNCSA School of Drama, on the original Broadway productions of "West Side Story" and "Gypsy." Freedman was the assistant director to Jerome Robbins on both.
UNCSA did an all-school production of "West Side Story" in 2007.
Laurents also worked with Cigdem Onat, a member of the drama-school faculty who has since retired, on two productions, the Lincoln Center revival of Laurents' play "The Time of the Cuckoo" and the world premiere of "Claudia Lazlo."
Barbra Streisand, who first worked with Laurents in 1962 on "I Can Get It for You Wholesale" and was about to do a film version of "Gypsy" with him, said: "He created people you care about because he cared about people. I spoke to him a few weeks ago and he sounded so strong, as always. He was lucky to have lived a full and creative life up til the very end. I'll miss working with him again."
Laurents had an extensive career in radio and in Hollywood, but it was on Broadway where the three-time Tony Award winner had his biggest successes, particularly with two musicals many consider to be among the finest ever written. And Laurents provided the book — or story — for both. He transformed Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" into "West Side Story," a story about rival New York gangs, and followed it up by turning the story of a stripper into the musical "Gypsy."
Laurents' "West Side Story," which opened on Broadway in 1957, substituted the Jets and the Sharks for the Montagues and Capulets to thrilling effect, thanks in part to Robbins' choreography, music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by a young Stephen Sondheim.
Two years later, Laurents and Robbins teamed up again for "Gypsy," based on the memoirs of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. The musical, with a score by Jule Styne and Sondheim, told the story of Rose, a domineering stage mother who pushed her daughters into show business. As Rose, Ethel Merman had the greatest triumph of her career.
"Gypsy" has been successfully revived four times on Broadway, first in 1974 with Angela Lansbury as Rose, then with Tyne Daly in 1989 (Laurents directed both), Bernadette Peters in 2003 (directed by Sam Mendes) and Patti LuPone five years later, with Laurents again directing.
In 2009, Laurents directed a revised version of "West Side Story," giving the show a new dose of realism by having much of the dialogue in Spanish.
Laurents was born in Brooklyn, the son of an attorney. He attended Cornell University and after graduation began writing radio plays including scripts for such popular series as "Dr. Christian" and "The Thin Man." His wartime experiences led to his first Broadway play, "Home of the Brave" (1945). In Hollywood after the war, Laurents wrote or co-wrote scripts for such films as "Rope" (1948), "Caught" (1949); and "Anna Lucasta" (1949).
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