Mikaela Bennett has been announced to play Maria in the BBC Proms August 11 concert presentation of West Side Story, which will co-star Eden Espinosa as Anita, Ross Lekites as Tony, Leo Roberts as Riff, and Gian Marco Schiaretti as Bernardo.
Sierra Boggess, known on both sides of the Atlantic for her performance in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, was originally announced to sing the role of Maria in the 76-minute concert presentation of the Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim score at Royal Albert Hall.
Boggess later withdrew from the production over public outcry that a Latinx performer had not been cast as Maria in the musical that transposes Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet into a culture clash between rival white and Puerto Rican street gangs in 1950s New York City.
A limited number of remaining tickets for the 3:30 PM performance will go on sale at 9 AM on August 11. Click here for details.
