Un Lenguaje Asi

I'm pretty disappointed to hear that the current Broadway revival of West Side Story has changed some lyrics back into English. I'm fairly lukewarm about that show in general (don't hate me, my devotion to Gypsy more than makes up for it, I promise), and while I haven't heard the greatest things about this production (which I haven't seen), just the idea of having the Sharks sing and speak in Spanish has excited me from the beginning. If this is a deeply passionate story about deeply passionate people, of course these characters should be using their native language. I feel that's even more critical when the racial and cultural differences between characters ignite the story in the first place. How can Anita insist that Maria "stick to [her] own kind" if we only hear her speak English? Moreover, Anita's such a fascinating character herself that her ability to switch from Spanish to English would add tremendously to her arc. An all Spanish "A Boy Like That," for example, would be even more chilling if her "America" had been entirely in English.

Theatre--musical theatre in particular--lends itself amazingly well to playing with language in that way. All language has an inherent musicality; say the same phrase enough times consecutively, and its meaning will fade, leaving its rhythm and pitch behind. I love going to my parish's Italian Mass for that reason; that's also why I really enjoy listening to Jpop. When I listen to a language I don't understand, I hear the musicality of speech much more clearly. When I listen to lyrics in another language, I listen to the words as I listen to the music--which lyrics really are, anyway.

The best, most recent example of that in musical theatre is The Light in the Piazza, which boldly included entire songs and scenes in Italian. I don't know anyone who had trouble figuring out the story as a result, not even my non-theatregoing parents when they saw the PBS broadcast. For me, the show has a great deal to do with who understands you and what happens when you can't be understood, and watching Clara and Fabrizio navigate their language barrier was a big part of it. And so is the moment when Fabrizio pours out his heart in beautiful Italian--or the moment when his family argues furiously in front of a bewildered, increasingly panicking Clara--while the audience knows exactly what's going on without understanding a single word.