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Thu, 08/27/2009 - 8:31am — MsExPat

There's a revival of West Side Story playing on Broadway now. To add a more authentic feel to the Leonard Bernstein/Steven Sondheim classic, the producers had some of the songs translated into Spanish. But now they've decided to put some back into English:

The producers never formally asked audience members about the Spanish lyrics, let alone held a focus group, Mr. Seller and Mr. Laurents said. But Mr. Seller noted that, in postperformance conversations with friends and audience members, he was surprised by how many people had never seen “West Side Story,” with music by Leonard Bernstein, onstage or its film version and lacked a strong grasp of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” which was the basis for the plot.

This depresses me on so many levels I almost don't know where to begin. But let me try.

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