Bilingual West Side Story edits out some Spanish

Well before its opening on Broadway, the revival of West Side Story now playing at the Palace Theater had been touted for the fact that some songs and dialog performed by its Puerto Rican characters would be delivered in Spanish. But on Tuesday, publicists for the musical said that some of these sections have been changed back to English, as they were originally performed on stage and in the well-known West Side Story film.

In a news release, publicists for the Broadway production said that “slight changes have been implemented” to the show, adding: “ ‘A Boy Like That’ is now predominately sung in English to the original lyrics and selected dialog and lyrics in ‘I Feel Pretty’ have reverted to English.” The release said that the changes went into effect last Thursday.

In a statement, Arthur Laurents, who directed the revival and wrote the book for West Side Story, said, “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.”

(Via ArtsBeat)