As the world prepares to celebrate the 60th anniversary of West Side Story in 2017, dancer Bruno Tonioli and broadcaster Suzy Klein go in search of the true stories behind the inception of this classic show. For the first time on television, they hear first-hand from those involved in the show when it opened on Broadway in September 1957, including Sondheim himself, producer Hal Prince and original cast members from both show and movie, including Chita Rivera Carol Lawrence and Rita Moreno. With the BBC Symphony Orchestra and specially cast singers, we re-live some of the wonderful music and, in the company of Suzy and Bruno, we discover how West Side Story placed the 1950s phenomena of racial tension and teenage gangs centre stage to create a hit that changed musical theatre forever.

The hour-long programmes will explore the transformation of music during this period – an age of political and industrial change - where music cemented its reputation as a leading art form and an integral part of people’s lives. The series shows how composers of this age, no longer restricted by aristocratic patronage following the fall of Europe's elite after the French Revolution, began to experiment musically in a way that hadn't been seen before. The pioneering methods and ground-breaking works of the likes of Beethoven, Wagner, Chopin, Verdi, Schubert, Berlioz and Liszt sparked a musical transformation which changed the face of music forever.

In this ambitious new three-part series, Suzy Klein explores how the power of music to rouse our emotions gave it a crucial role in the Russian revolution, throughout the dictatorships of Hitler and Stalin and during World War II. Suzy’s rich repertoire of musical stories, brought wonderfully to life through performances by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and its Chorus, sheds fascinating light on the history of some of the most turbulent years of the 20th Century.