Lisa bacon!

Sigh. The Washington Post had a review of a new production of West Side Story. The production looks really cool -- the Puerto Rican characters speak Spanish when they're talking to each other. It's been getting great reviews.

Anyway. Someone wrote in a letter to the editor about this. Complaining that immigrants should learn to speak English, and that "language concessions" like this don't help anyone. [link]

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Of course, I am also slightly @@ that Maria is being played by an Argentine.

Well, if Joss makes a dramatic comedy show about Roman dinosaurs in Britain, I'm totally there.

If Alan Tudyk would narrate it then it would be perfect.

Huh. The bilingual West Side Story was originally going to have subtitles, the way they sometimes do it for operas, but after working with that for a while in the previews, they scrapped it. Now it's just part English, part Spanish, no translations.

Now it's just part English, part Spanish, no translations.

So half the play is basically unintelligible to a portion of the audience? Where's the logic in that?

According to the article,

The English subtitles for Spanish dialogue and lyrics are being scrapped; Laurents deemed them unnecessary and possibly distracting, according to producer Kevin McCollum. Without that crutch, non-Spanish-speaking audience members may better appreciate the identity and integrity of the Sharks and comprehend the Jets' insecurity, he said.

Without that crutch, non-Spanish-speaking audience members may better appreciate the identity and integrity of the Sharks and comprehend the Jets' insecurity, he said.

Or they just won't know what's going on. Either way.

So half the play is basically unintelligible to a portion of the audience? Where's the logic in that?

Have you seen History Boys ?

Now it's just part English, part Spanish, no translations.

How real life like. It wouldn't matter for those already well familiar with the story. It will be interesting to see how it works out for them.