Sondheim has said that there's no way that a simple, young girl who speaks Spanish as her first language and who is a fairly recent immigrant would ever be singing (or speaking) in such clever internal rhymes.
This, to me, is the most distressingly literal thing Sondheim has ever said. For a genius (indisputably so), this is just so shockingly literal. For one thing, I highly doubt that Maria and the girls are singing in her room in ENGLISH. They're speaking Spanish, and therefore the rhymes are natural to her. However, we as an audience need to know what's being said, so we HEAR the conversation in English. Then we get to enjoy not only Maria's dramatically ironic celebratory song BUT also Sondheim's clever and inventive wordplay.
The 2009 production directed by Laurents which replaced all the Sharks lyrics with Spanish was dreadful. Sorry, but I don't speak Spanish, and while I already know the words, I would've really liked my $100 ticket to provide me with an event in which I could fully be immersed, rather than reminded that I'm not Spanish.
As I said, the dislike Sondheim has for this song is just unfathomable. |
