Lin-Manuel Miranda '02 is keeping busy adapting a fresh Broadway revival of "West Side Story", translating much of the musical's original dialogue and song lyrics into Spanish:

In his own musical Mr. Miranda struggled to balance English and Spanish; he said that, surprisingly, the amount of Spanish doubled between the Off Broadway and Broadway productions. In the song “Breathe,” he noted, when one of the characters returns home confused after dropping out of college, her friends sing about how she has always been the star of the neighborhood.

“It’s much more visceral to hear them sing in Spanish,” said Mr. Miranda, dressed in a hooded blue sweatshirt from Wesleyan, where he first started writing “In the Heights.”

New York Times: A Changed 'West Side Story' Returns to a Changed New York
Washington Post: A Bilingual Return to National Theatre Stage