Tonight Quintet Tonight Quintet The "Tonight Quintet" is a number from the musical "West Side Story" (1957), with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Carol J. Oja has written that, "with the 'Tonight' quintet, Bernstein once again created a masterpiece of ensemble, one that rivals the best of such moments in European opera." Her remark echoes the earlier view of Will Crutchfield. In his review of the 1984 studio performance of "West Side Story", which was conducted by Bernstein himself, Crutchfield wrote that the release of the recording "is above all an occasion for celebrating one of the great
Stephen Sondheim needed money for rent. The network disliked the title and Sondheim's alternative, "A Little Night Music". After Sondheim finished "Evening Primrose", Jerome Robbins asked him to adapt Bertolt Brecht's "The Measures Taken" despite the composer's general dislike of Brecht's work. Robbins wanted to adapt another Brecht play, "The Exception and the Rule", and asked John Guare to adapt the book. Leonard Bernstein had not written for the stage in some time, and his contract as conductor of the New York Philharmonic was ending. Sondheim was invited to Robbins' house in the hope that Guare would convince him to write the