Then and now Sondheim never liked "I Feel Pretty"

Stephen Sondheim tells 60 Minutes why "I Feel Pretty" is gone from the Broadway revival of "West Side Story"
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[@March152010]

He talks exactly the way he did 30 years ago. His voice never aged.

[@PapagenoMF]

That's not true. He sounds much more crotchety now.

[@peteb1206]

@@PapagenoMF the man's 90. Let's see how you sound at 90.

[@PapagenoMF]

@@peteb1206 Yeah, duh of course. Did you even read the comment I responded to, lol?

[@peteb1206]

@@PapagenoMF yes I did, and as you appear not to have understood the subtlety of my response: I vehemently disagree with you. He doesn't sound crotchety in any definition or to any degree.

[@masterhaterbater5927]

Yeah but his face looks like it's melting lmfao

[@scottearley3530]

He is the last one of the creative team of West Side Story left, and as the last survivor, he gets to have "I Feel Pretty" finally cut.

[@JudgeJulieLit]

In the 1961 film West Side Story, Maria sang "I Feel Pretty" not after the rumble (although on the roof waiting for a rendezvous with Tony after his presumed prevent of the rumble, she ballet dances an insouciantly spritely tune that continues her optimistic mood of "IFP"), but after first meeting and establishing a romance with Tony. "IFP" develops, carries forward the dramatic plot and her characterization as a vivacious young lady readying to marry and elope with her beau to a better place "Somewhere." And these optimistic songs of the main lovers (as "Tonight") express the buoyancy of the plot's rising action, and so serve as a dramatic foil to deepen the rumble and post-rumble carnage tragedies to follow.

[@oliverbrownlow5615]

The tune to which Maria dances while awaiting Tony's arrival after the rumble in the 1961 film is the same variation of "Maria" that underscores Tony and Maria's first meeting during the "Dance at the Gym." Although Maria's dance has something of the same ironic effect as "I Feel Pretty," it is briefer and quieter, so the effect is more muted. Ernest Lehman's screenplay tends to minimize dramatic irony in favor of ratcheting up the tension after the rumble, not only by changing the position of "I Feel Pretty," but also more famously by swapping the original positions of "Cool" and "Gee, Officer Krupke." This leads him to the necessity of inventing a whole new character, Ice, to sing the lead part in "Cool," since its original front man, Riff, has been slain in the rumble.

[@angelicalicari8355]

I admire him even more for admitting that one of his most cherished songs isn't true to the character. I'd love to hear his re-writes.

[@jzwalz51robin45]

I thought the song accurately expresses how a young girl feels when she first falls in love. The hope and happiness was brought forth. It is very feminine and positive, a counter point to the later plot development.

[@jonathandoelander6130]

Maria never came of as a "street girl." She was written as young and very sheltered by her family and older brother. To be street, you have to be on the streets. She sounded like someone who is being raised to be an "American" by her parents, and to sound like a standard American.

[@anniespencer7879]

Even the darkest musical needs one happy tune.

[@faithallen4040]

I heard an interview with Terry Gross from Fresh Air from 10 years ago...Sondheim is 90 years old and his mind is just as alert. He's brilliant.

[@raymondkymsuttle]

I love that song! Very sad it’s been dropped.

[@tlw1950]

I LOVE I Feel Pretty! I would never see a production of WSS without it. I hope Spielberg doesn’t cut it from the remake.

[@The_Isaiahnator]

If I ever reach 90, I hope to retain my faculties as well as this man has.

[@susanpaul8259]

I missed l feel pretty in the New Broadway production When you.are 16 and in love you.are.in an advanced state of shock. The other seamstresses are observing and commenting on the new Maria. Stephen don't be embarrassed, the songs a classic. .

[@reasonrestored9116]

I still love it.

[@theassortedhobbyist]

Listening to Stephen Sondheim’s thoughts and feelings about “I Feel Pretty” about the cutting of the song in that production of the show after watching the 2021 film adaptation of West Side Story really shows why the song works better in a stage musical rather than in a film. It is a complete tonal whiplash for a viewer after witnessing two deaths at the rumble and just when the drama is escalating, we get the scene of Maria at work and the song “I Feel Pretty” to contrast the tension with something light hearted, but instead of being dramatic irony it feels like it just halts the pace of the story. Since there is no intermission for the audience to process what happened during the rumble, the scene and song just comes across as out of left field and makes that portion of the story feel longer than it should.

[@yellolab09]

Arghh, we miss you already Mr Sondheim. We'll meet again, in the dark, when the lights have gone down and the curtain goes up.

[@cannibalisticrequiem]

Honestly I'm more amused by all of the entitled audience members with their noses in the air, believing they think *they're* going to be the one to convince Mr. Sondheim of how wrong his opinion is. As the man said himself, it's *his* opinion, and he doesn't like "IFP", period. 🤷‍♀️

[@oliverbrownlow5615]

I think it is unlikely that any of the words we have written here will ever come to Mr. Sondheim's attention.

[@faithallen4040]

I'm glad he's not living in the 1950s past. He obviously has kept up with what's going on in the world.

[@runefaustblack]

I don't think that's what's going on, OP. Just as he's entitled to have his opinion and say it, we're entitled to have and say ours.

[@oliverbrownlow5615]

Much as I love and respect Stephen Sondheim as a great songwiter and as our greatest musical theatre theorist, I've always thought his reservations about "I Feel Pretty" were misguided. Maria as a character might not be able to *write the song* "I Feel Pretty" in English or in Spanish, but the scene in question doesn't depict her performing her own work at an open mic night. The song tells us how she feels, and love makes you eloquent at least in your own mind. So I think it's absolutely right as a "poetic" (musical and lyrical) translation to the audience of Maria's state of mind. I'm also very puzzled by Sondheim's saying here (for the first time as far as I know) in effect that the number causes a time-wasting delay in the ongoing story and that if you perform it "the irony is lost." On the contrary, in my opinion, far from being a time-waster, "I Feel Pretty" builds dramatic suspense as the story picks up after the rumble precisely because of the ironic contrast between the charm and joyfulness of the number and the audience's knowledge that a horrible tragedy has already taken place that seems certain to destroy Maria's happiness as soon as word of it comes to her, which seems very likely to happen at any moment, and finally does. This is the only irony in the scene of which I am aware, and ironically, *it* will be lost (to the detriment of the current production) if the number is eliminated, as seems already to have been done. I wish Stephen Sondheim had a little more reverence for the work of Stephen Sondheim.

[@juliamavroidi8601]

I think he meant to express that the irony he intended to convey with IFP is lost on the audience who are waiting for the conclusion of the rumble scene and are not in the mood for an interspersed scene. So instead of apprecuating the tragic irony or being shocked by the sudden shift in mood, they are merely glad the song is over and the plot is continuining.

[@msmazahs]

you took the words out of my mouth!

[@chiedu90069]

I actually agree with Sondheim: the lyrics don't sound anything like Maria or anyone else in the show. The show has poetic songs - but they all use everyday language. "Maria" is full of rapture, yet the lyrics sound like a boy from the 50s. "Somewhere" is pretty basic - though powerful. The line "I Feel Pretty" works, but the rest sounds like girls in a finishing school. That said, I would never cut it. It gives the audience a break and it makes Maria's shock more powerful when she learns what happened at the Rumble. And the song is just too good!

[@AirglamGuru]

Thank you, you just saved "I feel pretty" for me. Although Sondheim makes perfect sense of course, I actually prefer your point of view.

[@rickramos1292]

I was shocked the first time I learned of Sondheim's thoughts regarding the lyrics of this song. It was a completely awkward moment for me as a life-long fan of musical theatre who has great respect for him and who previously felt he could say and do no wrong to process such a profoundly ignorant assertion coming from such a great mind. As a Hispanic American, not gonna lie, it is incredibly offensive to me that he stood by such an ignorant opinion of his own work till death, never seeing just how stupid what he said was. It's one thing if he had Maria sing a number such as "The Ladies Who Lunch" or something similar but Jesus Christ on a stick "I Feel Pretty" uses the most basic English and the most simplistic concepts and humor, it is a huge slap in the face to know he was MORTIFIED by Maria singing "it's alarming how charming I feel." Then again he DID add the lyric "or maybe it's fleas" in the same song and never found that embarrassing because he probably perceived Maria and Puerto Ricans as dogs.

[@kevintyson9026]

RIP Mr. Sondheim

[@tadimaggio]

I agree with part of Sondheim's objection to "I Feel Pretty", but not all of it. I agree that the lyric doesn't fit the character of Maria (years ago, Sondheim commented, accurately, that "It's alarming how charming I feel" is a phrase that you'd expect to hear in Noel Coward's living room, not in the bedroom of a teenaged Puerto Rican girl who's newly arrived in New York). But I couldn't disagree more about the tonal change that the song creates after the rumble. It's extremely powerful in performance to see Maria laughing and enjoying herself with her girlfriends, not yet knowing that her lover has just killed her brother. (The next scene, where Chino breaks in and tells her, while we hear Maria's mother cry out in horror offstage "NO! BERNARDO MUERTO!", is a real gut-puncher. I should add that I recently played Doc in a SUPERB production of "West Side Story".) Sondheim has given us enough theatrical glory over the last half-century that he can bear a blemish or two. (I'd love the man just for the lyric from "You Could Drive A Person Crazy" in "Company", where he rhymes "personable" with "coercing a bull".)

[@nathangraham1611]

He's saying that this production is different in that it is one act, no intermission. I don't necessarily agree with him that that necessitates the cut, but he's not saying it needs to be taken out as a general rule.

[@AirglamGuru]

Damn, he spoiled "I feel pretty" for me forever now, lol. I never thought about the point he makes but of course it makes perfect sense...

[@grantmalone]

Here's a thought to perhaps un-spoil it. _Everything_ in the show is a leap away from reality. It's a show. No one actually talks in rhyme, or sings their emotions, or dances when they fight. I guarantee you that the other lyrics he wrote weren't how a Puerto Rican street girl talks either. He's the author so he's picky, and that's fine. But when you're suspending your belief by a mile to accept all the characteristics of a musical, it's hardly a stretch at all to suspend it a few inches more to accept that Maria sings some flowery lines. The emotion she's expressing when she sings "it's alarming how charming I feel" is a perfectly fitting one. The form of expression is heightened, but so is every other aspect of the show.

[@AirglamGuru]

@@grantmalone very true, thanks!

[@captaincarl1]

She talks like that because she feels like a princess in that moment. I just saw the new movie. This song is important to it. Maria wearing the silk scarf only added to it. The love made her feel transported, accepted. And it's nice to have songs about love from her perspective, not just Tony singing to her.

[@jadetiger88888]

i like that song...

[@mollie4960]

I always found it so interesting how harshly he criticized his work on WSS basically because he wrote too well and intelligently for the characters he was trying to portray lol

[@devanmoran]

a legend

[@captaincarl1]

Having the song where it was in the play was perfect. It only adds to the tragedy. It is disjointed in a good way. The complete elation and joy of Maria. And as the audience, we know what's going to happen next.

[@futilidadesaleatorias925]

I'd like to hear about Maria ! That's my fav ! I just wated to know how he made it and his feelings about it!

[@thatmeanmexican9423]

Rip

[@mkburwell9523]

If he doesn't like I Feel Pretty because it's unrealistic for her to have such a grasp on English, does he like it in the productions where I Feel Pretty is sung in Spanish?

[@owlman_]

The funny thing is that in Spanish it's EVEN MORE out of character for a street-raised girl last century. "There is is no goddess that can reach me... I am radiant and gracious... No star can outshine me... Today I will be crowned... A good lad has my love." The other girls aren't safe either. They (sarcastically) call her "subtle, pure, passionate," and later "abnormal." The only time Maria sounds close to realistic is when she says "What a pretty face, what a pretty rear," but the word used for "face" is more akin to "visage," making the phrase more literary.

[@chiedu90069]

Sondheim is what I need during Coronavirus isolation. God, Allah, the Goddess, Mother Earth, Oprah, whoever - keep this man safe!

[@bman342a]

I always saw this as a pretty street girl trying to emulate, and in a way, satirize, what and how Miss America would say or speak -- which of course is referenced in the lyric.

[@hklinker]

I don't know, how about the gang members dancing up a storm? That's pretty incongruous.

[@lohphat]

It wasn't just his composition, it was also Bernstein's. What about Lenny's perspective and right to have his works performed? If he didn't think that the song made sense: 1. He's never been to a Washington Heights nail salon. 2. Two street gangs dancing ballet and jazz does? 3. Was it because it was memorable by the general public and didn't require a degree in music to perform?

[@kickthespike]

I'm delighted I won't be seeing this new producing.

[@9mmsafetyalwaysoff00]

busy smelling your own farts that evening?

[@angelthman1659]

Stage is not real life, it's an expression. So it's okay to have the Puerto Rican girl speak in literary poetry.

[@pazyamor2292]

Given: Sondheim is the greatest Broadway lyricist of all time. However, does anyone else think it's a bit condescending to say a Puerto Rican girl couldn't come up with the line "It's alarming how charming I feel"? Where is it established that she was a "street girl," as he says here? If that's in the script somewhere, I don't remember it. Her friends say she's "well-bred and mature," so maybe she's read a few books and picked up some diction. And while "It's alarming how charming I feel" is a good line, it's not exactly the peak of sophistication. It's not like she said "a matinee, a Pinter play, perhaps a piece of Mahler's" or something - now that would seem out of character! So, great respect for the genius, but I think he's wrong on this one.

[@minarik01]

you think he is wrong about his own writing? Got it

[@archangecamilien1879]

I have to say I thought that myself, haha, when I watched it...yeah, it is out of character, I always thought "narcissistic"...I didn't think anyone would say that, though, haha...

[@jzwalz51robin45]

I thought the song accurately expresses how a young girl feels when she first falls in love. The hope and happiness was brought forth. It is very feminine and positive, a counter point to the later plot development.

[@archangecamilien1879]

Hmm...yeah...you might have a point...but still..."and I pity every girl who isn't me today"...that might be going a little further than one might feel in such a situation...

[@jzwalz51robin45]

@@archangecamilien1879 Those lyrics were written with humor in mind, a way of her realizing how lucky she is at the moment. It expresses how she wishes others could also feel. She felt special for one brief moment.

[@archangecamilien1879]

Hmm..."and I pity any girl who isn't me today"...that doesn't sound like wishing others could feel the same, haha...now, I don't think the intention of the lyricist is terribly important, the sum of their efforts might not correspond with their initial intentions...but since you bring it up, as this video says itself, Sondheim was trying to impress, he was showing how he could rhyme, etc, he hates the lyrics himself...again, I don't think that automatically makes them bad lyrics...I always thought they were off myself...but if you want to bring up the lyricist, haha, that just gives me ammunition...

[@phaffner4106]

The song I feel Pretty should have Not been dropped. The song provides the human quality of falling in love. I guess they revivals producers wanted to focus primarily on hate and division. Typical very typical.

[@9mmsafetyalwaysoff00]

lmao thanks for your opinion

[@deuceactive5375]

Wonder if Stephen charged for the lesson

[@devanmoran]

amazing but his songs are so hard to sing

[@bt10ant]

That's quite a case of dermatochalasis. It's a wonder he can see out of those lids....

[@Misterz3r0]

Focusing on the stuff that matters.

[@jakeindalake3191]

Alot of stuff she sings wouldn't be realistic for her though

[@bigred8432]

such as?

[@shloopy5]

As he said, it was his first show. I think there's a lot of things he has admitted he would now do differently. I personally cringe when I hear "going mad shooting sparks into space." that's a weird one. :|

[@josephhapp9]

I always thought IFP words and music were out of character. More like Julie Andrews doing a “white privileged debutante” from high society England.

[@oliverbrownlow5615]

Well, Julie Andrews did make a lovely studio recording of "I Feel Pretty," which can be found here on KZbin.