‘West Side Story’ wins Grammy for musical show album

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The current Broadway revival of ‘West Side Story,’ which mixes English and Spanish-language songs, won the Grammy for best musical show album on Sunday.

‘West Side Story’ beat out albums for ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’,’ ‘Hair,’ ‘9 to 5: The Musical’ and ‘Shrek: The Musical.’

The album for ‘West Side Story’ was released by Masterworks Broadway in June. The recording features vocals by the original Broadway revival cast, including Matt Cavenaugh, Josefina Scaglione and Tony-winner Karen Olivo.

The Grammy for the ‘West Side Story’ album goes to producers David Caddick and David Lai. Also receiving trophies are the late Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the music and lyrics, respectively. ‘West Side Story’ originally opened on Broadway in 1957.

This isn’t the first Grammy for the iconic musical. The soundtrack for the 1961 film and a 1985 album with opera singers Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carreras also won Grammys. (The original Broadway version didn’t win one -- the 1958 Grammy winner was ‘The Music Man.’)

The current production opened in March at the Palace Theatre and features English and Spanish-language dialogue and songs. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of the Tony-winning ‘In the Heights,’ wrote the new Spanish lyrics, though much of the original English has been stored since the musical opened.

-- David Ng

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