America (West Side Story song) America (West Side Story song) “America” is a song from the musical "West Side Story". Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics and Leonard Bernstein composed the music. In the original stage version, Anita – the most important female character after Maria and the girlfriend of Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks – praises America while a fellow Puerto Rican immigrant, Rosalia, supports Puerto Rico. This version of the song deprecates the island and highlights the positive qualities of American life ("I’ll drive a Buick through San Juan/If there’s a road you can drive on"). The irony of this supposedly pro-American number,
Kelly (musical) Yeko and Doris Chu Yeko, which specialised in obscure musical theatre recordings. The album's executive producers were the Yekos and Eddie Lawrence. It was dedicated to the memory of Moose Charlap, who died in 1974. Moose Charlap's wife, Sandy Stewart, who was a cabaret and jazz vocalist, released her own pop version of the song "Never Go There Anymore" in 1965, with a lush arrangement by Don Costa. The song subsequently become something of a standard. In 2000, it was described by Stephen Sondheim as one of the songs that he wishes that he'd written, at least in part. In