No Me Diga! West Side Story Restores English Lyrics

The Broadway revival of West Side Story, which featured much-talked-about translation to Spanish for part of the score, is taking some steps to revert to its original version. The new production, directed by its librettist Arthur Laurents, had featured two songs in Spanish (“I Feel Pretty” and “A Boy Like That”), which are now predominately sung in English. The changes went into effect last Thursday, August 20, 2009, according to a production spokesperson.

“From the outset, the Spanish in West Side Story was an experiment. It’s been an ongoing process of finding what worked and what didn’t, and it still continues,” Laurents said in a statement.

The Spanish translation was provided by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Tony-winning creator of In the Heights, in collaboration with lyricist Stephen Sondheim.

West Side Story features a book by Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Sondheim, and includes such classic songs as "Something's Coming," "Tonight," "America," "I Feel Pretty" and "Somewhere." The musical transports the tale of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to the turbulent streets of the Upper West Side in 1950s New York City. Star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria find themselves caught between the rival street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds, the Jets and the Sharks. West Side Story brings to life their struggle to exist together in a world of violence, hate and prejudice.

The musical stars Matt Cavenaugh as Tony, Josefina Scaglione as Maria, Tony Award winner Karen Olivo as Anita, George Akram as Bernardo and John Arthur Greene as Riff. The production also features Steve Bassett as Lt. Schrank, Mike Cannon as Snowboy, Kyle Coffman as A-Rab, Joey Haro as Chino, Eric Hatch as Big Deal, Curtis Holbrook as Action, Michael Mastro as Glad Hand, Lee Sellars as Krupke, Tro Shaw as Anybodys, Ryan Steele as Baby John and Greg Vinkler as Doc.

The Tony-nominated production continues to play at the Palace Theatre.