I Feel Pretty I Feel Pretty "I Feel Pretty" is a song from the 1957 musical "West Side Story". "The New York Times" explained that "Mr. Sondheim…has said he was never particularly fond of his lyrics in 'West Side Story,' especially 'I Feel Pretty, later expressing that "The idea of the song is so simple". The original stage version of the lyrics were altered in the making of the movie version of West Side Story due to a change in the scenes occurrence. Making 'I feel pretty and witty and bright/And I pity/Any girl who isn't me tonight' into 'I feel pretty, and
I Feel Pretty witty and gay/And I pity/Any girl who isn’t me today'. In the movie this night scene was changed to the daytime, and presumably for this reason, the rhyming words "bright" and "tonight" were changed to "gay" and "today." In the musical, Maria is not yet aware that her love, Tony, has just killed her brother Bernardo, while in the film version, the song occurs before Bernardo's death. In the bridal shop where she works, Maria sings about being happy and feeling beautiful because she is "loved by a pretty wonderful boy", while her coworkers tease her about her silly behavior.