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
Saturday Night (musical) process, Sondheim halted proceedings due to feeling that his compositional level had outstripped what he had written six years previously. Although a handful of songs from the musical have appeared in revues and on Sondheim compilation albums, the score as a whole went unperformed until 1997. The Stephen Sondheim Society supported the first ever fully staged performance of the musical at the University of Birmingham, having been given permission to stage the show by Sondheim himself. The production was overseen by Professor Stephen Banfield who, also with permission from Sondheim, orchestrated the show for full band from the existing piano