To the best of my knowledge I don't think the authors ever specifically addressed this, but I think Laurents tried to with his 2008 (or 2009?) revival by having certain dialogue and song lyrics translated to Spanish. He also treated "Gee, Officer Krupke" less as comic relief from post-rumble tension and more as an expression of the anger felt by the Jets.
As we know, this met with limited success when applied to the book as he had originally written it. I wonder if Spielberg and/or Kushner were inspired to develop their movie by Laurents's goals with this revival.
