Regional Musical ‘Maria’ To Explore Life After ‘West Side Story’; Steven Sapp And Mildred Ruiz-Sapp Tapped To Write

With Stephen Spielberg’s cinematic adaptation of West Side Story musical in theaters now, it was announced that The Long Wharf Theater wants to explore Maria’s life after her West Side Story

According to Forbes, Steven Sapp and Mildred Ruiz-Sapp saw it as the perfect time to create a musical titled, Maria. The musical was commissioned by The Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, and will be written by Steven Sapp and Mildred Ruiz-Sapp. If you’re familiar with the plot of West Side Story, you know that the conclusion is open ended as Maria walks into an uncertain future, and the Sapp duo want to follow up with the character in Puerto Rico.

“What happened to that young woman, Maria, after she walks out of the park after Tony has been murdered?,” Steven Sapp said. “What life does she lead now that she knows hate and murder, … and where does her story continue?”  

“The dream of every Puerto Rican is to go back to the island,” said Ruiz-Sapp.  “The new show will take Maria and place her within the eye of the storm … of Hurricane Maria [in Puerto Rico], where she has to take notice of everything that she has lived and everything that has happened to her.”

While this isn’t a Broadway production, and is still in the very early stages of the production process, the importance and creation of the project is part of a larger effort from ethnic groups who are choosing to write their own stories and musicals to reclaim stories about their ethnicity and culture.

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