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,
Stephen Sondheim Theatre of a revival of the musical "Bye Bye Birdie". On March 22, 2010, his eightieth birthday, Roundabout announced that Henry Miller's Theatre would be renamed to honor American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. The official unveiling and lighting of the marquee of the new Stephen Sondheim Theatre took place in a ceremony on September 15, 2010. The first production at the newly renamed Stephen Sondheim Theatre was "The Pee-wee Herman Show", which played a limited ten-week engagement from October 26, 2010 through January 2, 2011. A revival of "Anything Goes" starring Sutton Foster and Joel Grey, followed from April 7,