RIP Arthur Laurents, Writer of West Side Story

A sad, lov­ing farewell to the great play­wright, libret­tist and direc­tor Arthur Lau­rents, who died in his sleep today at the age of 93. Mr. Lau­rents was best known for writ­ing Gyp­sy (1959), The Way We Were (1973), and of course the incom­pa­ra­ble West Side Sto­ry (1959), about which this author has noth­ing to say, except that with­out West Side Sto­ry the world as she knows and loves it would cease to exist.

He will be missed.

via  @SteveSilberman

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.