A second actor in Broadway’s West Side Story has suffered an onstage injury, and this time he’ll leave the show: Ben Cook, who played the role of Riff, sustained the unspecified injury Sunday evening and will be replaced by cast member Dharon E. Jones.
Jones, making his Broadway debut, currently plays the character Action in director Ivo van Hove’s staging in previews at the Broadway Theatre. No announcement was made about a replacement for Action.
The switch was announced today by producers Scott Rudin, Barry Diller and David Geffen today.
The news comes just short of three weeks after the show’s leading man Isaac Powell sustained an onstage knee injury, prompting the postponement of the revival’s opening from Feb. 6 to Feb. 20 as Powell’s understudy temporarily fills in.
The West Side Story revival, with all new choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker replacing the classic Jerome Robbins steps, began preview performances on December 10.
The injured Cook was making his fifth Broadway appearance with West Side Story, most recently having appeared in the original cast of Mean Girls.
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