Voices en Español

“Sometimes I don’t know which is thicker…your skull or your accent.” – Rita Moreno in West Side Story

One of Broadway’s most well-known musicals is about to get a makeover, this time in Spanish.  If you’ve never heard of West Side Story it’s basically a retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet set in 1950′s New York City. In this day and age of so much creative recycling and remakes, it’s rather surprising that it took somebody this long to realize that redoing West Side Story in Spanish would be a great idea. The “somebody” in this case is Arthur Laurents, the man who who wrote the book for Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s musical.

The New York Times says:

In an element that its director, Arthur Laurents, said would heighten the passion and authenticity of the show, much of the dialogue — both spoken and sung — will be in Spanish.

“They will speak Spanish where they would naturally,” Mr. Laurents said in a telephone interview from his home in Quogue, N.Y., adding that supertitles would be used to aid the audience. “The scenes with the Spanish are wildly exciting because they are much less inhibited. I don’t think many eyes are going to stray to the translation.”

Laurents, who appears from his photo to be an extremely fit and spry 91-year-old, plans to direct the new version and has opened the casting call for Spanish-speaking Hispanic actors. The show, which will run for four weeks in Washington, D.C. in December, will make its Broadway debut in February/March 2009.

While the filmed version of the play from 1961 remains extremely popular, there are aspects of it that haven’t aged well. Some people find the portrayals of Puerto Ricans culturally insensitive and stereotypical (take your pick), with the following clip considered a prime example. But the dancing still looks great!