The Four Essential Recordings of West Side Story
With Steven Spielberg’s reimagining of West Side Story finally making its way to HBO Max and Disney+ this week, I thought it would be fitting to discuss the recordings from the show’s sixty-year history. As there have been over 100 recordings, I’ve narrowed the field and focus only on the four best ones.
Original Broadway Cast (1957)
This document of the original production is overall great but has a few issues because of the recording technologies of the 1950s. The sound quality is good, but the limitations on the length of LPs means a fair bit of material is absent here. “Dance at the Gym” only includes the Mambo and Cha-Cha sections, the dialogue sections of “Tonight” and “One Hand, One Heart” are gone, and the “Somewhere” ballet is incomplete. These issues bleed into the tempi, as the “Prologue” and first section of “Cool” are too fast.
Where this recording shines is in the performances of the leads. Larry Kert’s tony is very energetic and passionate, even when he scrapes the top of his range in “Maria.” Carol Lawrence acts beautifully as Maria, but she also struggles with some of the higher notes in “Tonight” and “I Have a Love.” If you want to hear her sound her best, I recommend checking out the cast recording of Subways Are for Sleeping.
Setting a precedent followed by nearly every subsequent recording, Chita Rivera as Anita is the clear standout of the cast. Even without getting to watch her dance, Chita fully embodies all of Anita’s complexities. She’s playful and teasing in “America,” sensual in “Tonight (Quintet),” and you can hear her anger shift to exasperation and eventually acceptance in “A Boy Like That/I Have a Love.”
Film Soundtrack (1961)
This film was my gateway drug into Sondheim’s work and its soundtrack represents one of the best versions of this score. Jim Bryant (dubbing for Richard Beymer) is vocally one of the stronger Tonys on record. He doesn’t strain the high notes as much as Larry Kert, and he sounds appropriately youthful and innocent. Prolific ghost singer Marni Nixon’s work as a voice double for Natalie Wood as Maria is one of her better matches, second to Deborah Kerr as Anna in The King and I (1956). Nixon and Wood meet the requirements of every song: sweet and romantic in “Tonight” and “One Hand, One Heart,” jubilant and gleeful in “I Feel Pretty,” heartbroken in “Somewhere,” and desperately pleading in “I Have a Love.”
Anita having three different singing voices (Rita Moreno in “America,” Moreno/Marni Nixon in “Tonight (Quintet),” and Moreno/Betty Wand in “A Boy Like That/I Have a Love”) can distract at points, particularly when Nixon ends up singing two parts simultaneously in the Quintet. But Moreno and George Chakiris’ version of “America” is the strongest out of any recording. Sondheim’s revised lyrics change the dynamic of the song from Rosalia praising Puerto Rico and Anita degrading it in the original to Anita praising America as a land of opportunity, while Bernardo retorts with examples of discrimination against Puerto Ricans. Speaking of revisions, Sondheim had to change some parts of the Quintet and “Gee, Officer Krupke!” to keep the film Code-friendly. These changes aren’t awful, but they lack some of the wit of the originals.
Leonard Bernstein Conducts West Side Story (1985)
This recording has a lot of detractors, but I’m not one of them. Leonard Bernstein took the conductor’s chair for the first time in the show’s history—doing a wonderful job, except for the slowed-down “I Feel Pretty”—and filled the cast with some of the opera world’s greatest stars. Spanish tenor José Carreras plays Tony, and while he struggles with the syncopated rhythms in “Something’s Coming,” he sounds sublime in the ballads. Kiri Te Kanawa’s Maria is warm and vibrant, ably balancing the character’s naivete and growing maturity. Her duet of “A Boy Like That/I Have a Love” with Tatiana Troyanos as Maria is the highlight of the recording. Troyanos is most famous for playing the titular role in Bizet’s Carmen, and the qualities that made her definitive in that role translate perfectly to Anita. Her rich mezzo-soprano is incredibly expressive, lending itself to the wide range of emotions Anita experiences throughout the story.
Film Soundtrack (2021)
I will say, without hyperbole, that Gustavo Dudamel is the best conductor West Side Story has ever had. Under his direction, The New York Philharmonic plays with unparalleled energy, and all the tempi are right on the money. Out of the cast, Ansel Elgort’s Tony fares the worst, which isn’t saying much. He’s fine, just not up to par with everyone else. Rachel Zegler’s crystalline soprano is perfect for Maria’s numbers, gliding over the notes with ease. Ariana DeBose’s turn as Anita will win her the Oscar if there is any justice in this world, and although I’m conflicted about the creative decision to take “Somewhere” away from Tony and Maria, Rita Moreno’s performance of it does a great job balancing Valentina’s hope, despair, love, and determination. Lyrically, this is the strongest of all the recordings as well. “America” uses part of the 1957 opening for the song before shifting into the superior 1961 film lyrics, while everything else remains as it was in the original production.