West Side Story - 1966 Studio Cast

David Holliday starred in the original London production and Tony Adams played Riff later in the run of the show.

that is the great thing about a lot of the MFP recordings - they often used West End performers who created or took over roles! You will find that Pat Gogh on that recording played Anita on stage as the production toured.

Respectfully, Andy, Glad Hand is not exactly a "star" part (John Astin in the film notwithstanding). It was Don McKay and Marlys Matters as Tony and Maria who opened the original London WSS, with Chita Rivera reprising Anita, Ke LeRoy as Bernardo and George Chakiris as Riff.

Sorry, that should be Marlys Watters!

While David Holliday played "Glad Hand", he was understudying the role of "Tony". He later replaced Don McKay and took over the role of "Tony".

Very interesting that he would transition from one of the "adult" roles to a juvenile one. Hope it worked! Too bad they never did a full-on cast recording of London rather than just the EP. Chita would have been the only repeating lead vocalist. (Years later there were separate US / UK recordings of BYE BYE BIRDIE with her leading both.)