A Cool Win for West Side Story at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards

West Side Story had a cool win at the Grammy Awards on January 31. The musical revival won for Best Musical Show Album, beating out fellow nominees Ain’t Misbehavin’, Hair, 9 to 5: The Musical and Shrek the Musical. The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony is held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

West Side Story features a score by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The new Broadway cast recording features Matt Cavenaugh, Josefina Scaglione and Tony winner Karen Olivo. David Caddick and David are the producers. It was released on the Sony Masterworks label.

When the production, directed by its librettist Arthur Laurents, opened on March 19, 2009, it 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 on August 20, 2009. The cast recording features the Spanish version, with translation provided by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Tony-winning creator of In the Heights, in collaboration with Sondheim.

The Grammy is awarded to the producers of the album as well as songwriters who contributed more than 51% of material on the recording.

West Side Story continues to play on Broadway at the Palace Theatre.