When it was announced that Steven Spielberg would helm a new film adaptation of West Side Story, there was a vast amount of skepticism as to what he could possibly bring new to this well known and beloved show that had already been adapted into a Best Picture-winning film in 1961 directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. As it turns out, Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner had quite a lot of new ideas to infuse into the classic piece of musical theater, attacking subjects like gentrification, the intersections of race and class warfare, and the police with far greater aim than in the original iterations. They also made large structural changes to the piece by altering song orders and, in some cases, who actually performs the songs. With something as well known and beloved as West Side Story, any change or tweak made to the material will stand out to a great number of people who know the Broadway show or 1961 film adaptation very well, and as a person who does come at the new film from that perspective, they only help to deepen a story that could easily be seen as glossy melodrama.

There is one number, though, that receives a minor change perhaps many would not clock. That song is "I Feel Pretty," the uptempo comedic Act II opener sung by María, wonderfully played by Rachel Zegler. The song, in which María expresses her exuberance at being in love with Tony (Ansel Elgort), is still performed by the same character who originally performed it, takes place at the same time in the story as it usually does, and no lyrics are changed. However, Spielberg elects to make a simple change that completely recontextualizes the entire song, and all he had to do was move the number from one location to another.

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"I Feel Pretty," for many, has no issues. It is a delightful respite after the rumble that leaves the characters of Riff (Mike Faist) and Bernardo (David Alvarez) dead. The melody bounces and flutters along for a proper toe-tapping time before the emotionally charged climax and finale of the show. One person did have serious issues with the song, and that person was its lyricist, the recently departed Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim had many issues with the lyrics of West Side Story, but in particular "I Feel Pretty" exemplified the worst of those issues, going so far in his audio commentary of the 1961 film to say they "embarrass" him. His core problem is he "was so tired of writing one-syllable rhymes" and concerned about how he "wanted to announce [him]self" with his first show instead of writing lyrics authentic to the character of María.

Even if the song has delighted millions for decades, perhaps it is true that "a girl like María would not sing 'I feel pretty and witty and bright,' and she certainly doesn't say 'It's alarming how charming I feel.'" They do sound more like the words of a self-conscious twenty-seven-year-old intellectual lyricist than a poor teenage immigrant whose first language is Spanish, not English. Recent Broadway productions have attempted to solve what they feel is a similar dramaturgical problem. The 2009 Broadway revival, directed by the original book writer Arthur Laurents, brought in Lin-Manuel Miranda to translate "I Feel Pretty" and a few other songs into Spanish. This change was met with a ton of resistance by wealthy theatergoers spending a ton of money on tickets to hear their favorite songs performed how they want them, and eventually, the creative team relented and reinstated most of the original lyrics. In the 2020 revival directed by Ivo van Hove, "I Feel Pretty" was entirely cut from the production, as was just about anything else that could possibly elicit a smile on an audience member's face in favor of nonstop tragedy.

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Image via 20th Century Studios

Steven Spielberg made the smallest change, and it ends up being the most effective one. Instead of staging "I Feel Pretty" in the back room of a small Puerto Rican-run dress shop, Spielberg chooses to set the song in Gimbel's department store. In the 1950s, Gimbels was synonymous with the traditional, white American middle class, similar to a store like Macy's, that aimed to sell reliable, nice, appealing products to that middle class at a reasonable price. When María enters the main show floor of the department store with her janitorial coworkers, she enters a world completely unlike her own, where a $17 scarf is not seen as an extravagance.

Nevertheless, María takes to that show floor, and as she begins to sing "I Feel Pretty," she takes on the essence of her surroundings, making these rhymes once thought inauthentic into a self-conscious comment of thinking this display of white people with disposable income as "normal." It just so happens that the name of the collection being put on display is "Witty Wear with Bright Autumn Flair," giving her the inspiration to deliver that "pretty and witty and bright" line that Sondheim decried. That setup allows Zegler's María to affect the persona of someone who is a more natural fit with the original lyrics and gradually grow in stylization as the song continues. By the time we get to "It's alarming how charming I feel," the parodic transformation is complete, and we can fully enjoy both the verbal comedy from Sondheim and the physical comedy of Zegler interacting with the various showrooms of Gimbels. It turns Sondheim's perceived bugs into features.

Tony and Maria meet behind the gymnasium bleachers in 2021's 'West Side Story' remake

While the song does arrive at the same place it does in the stage show and original film adaptation, there is one key difference: Spielberg's West Side Story has no intermission. Instead, "I Feel Pretty" immediately follows the fatal rumble. We have not had a ten-to-fifteen minute break to truly process the events and lives that were lost, and the newfound heightened comedy in the fresh staging of the song puts into stark realization that this will be María's last moment of happiness, underlining the dramatic irony of her not knowing the fallout of that rumble even moreso than the song already did. So, when Chino (Josh Andrés Rivera) delivers the news, Zegler's crushing sadness hits deep inside your heart.

Steven Spielberg's West Side Story makes far more radical changes throughout the two and half hour running time than simply moving a musical number from one location to another. "I Feel Pretty" is not even the only song that does this. However, every other number in West Side Story already has strong dramatic stakes built into them and generally feel as though they come naturally to the people performing them. It's always been a bit of a shame that María's only solo in the show has been the song perceived as a bit of a throwaway by people helming productions and disappointing by its own writer. Spielberg found a way to make "I Feel Pretty" count both dramatically and comedically. Plus, it is a wonderful way to show off the talents of burgeoning superstar Rachel Zegler. To the people asking why we needed another version of West Side Story on film, moments like these are why.