Maria (West Side Story song) Maria (West Side Story song) "Maria" is a song from the Broadway musical "West Side Story", sung by the lead character Tony. The music was written by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The song was published in 1956. "Maria" is sung by the male lead Tony when he learns the name of the girl he's fallen in love with is "Maria". The name "Maria" is spoken or sung in the song 29 times. It begins in B major and then modulates to E-flat major. The song is widely known for its use of the melodic interval of a
Stephen Sondheim a musical adaption of "Beggar on Horseback" (a 1924 play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly, with permission from Kaufman) which had three performances. A member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, he graduated "magna cum laude" in 1950. "A few painful years of struggle" followed, when Sondheim auditioned songs, lived in his father's dining room to save money and spent time in Hollywood writing for the television series "Topper". He devoured 1940s and 1950s films, and has called cinema his "basic language"; his film knowledge got him through "The $64,000 Question" contestant tryouts. Sondheim dislikes movie musicals, favoring