Cool (West Side Story song) Cool (West Side Story song) "Cool" is a song from the musical "West Side Story". Leonard Bernstein composed the music and Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics. This song is known for its fugal treatment of a jazz figure, described by one writer as "possibly the most complex instrumental music heard on Broadway to date". In 2011, actor Harry Shum Jr. performed the song, as his character Mike Chang from TV series "Glee", in the third episode of season 3, "Asian F" (aired on October 4). An episode of "Animaniacs" features a parody version as "Coo Bird" sung by Bobby of
Saturday Night (musical) process, Sondheim halted proceedings due to feeling that his compositional level had outstripped what he had written six years previously. Although a handful of songs from the musical have appeared in revues and on Sondheim compilation albums, the score as a whole went unperformed until 1997. The Stephen Sondheim Society supported the first ever fully staged performance of the musical at the University of Birmingham, having been given permission to stage the show by Sondheim himself. The production was overseen by Professor Stephen Banfield who, also with permission from Sondheim, orchestrated the show for full band from the existing piano