Posted: 6/24/23 at 5:47pm
I saw Light in the Piazza and was surprised that a mainstream musical had full songs in a non English language (especially one that wasn’t Spanish). I speak some Italian so I was pleasantly surprised. I know the 2009 West Side Story let the Sharks speak Spanish. Are there other examples of this?
Posted: 6/24/23 at 6:16pm
KPOP has a good amount of both subtitled and non-subtitled Korean in both scenes and songs.
THE BAND’S VISIT also has “Itgara’a” (Tony Shalhoub’s only song in the show that resulted in a controversial Tony win)
Posted: 6/24/23 at 7:50pm
Not fully in a different language, but the Prayer scene in Come From Away features Hebrew and Arabic lyrics.
Posted: 6/24/23 at 8:08pm
The song "Abbondanza" from The Most Happy Fella is also in Italian.
Posted: 6/24/23 at 10:22pm
kdogg36 said: "The song "Abbondanza" fromThe Most Happy Fella is also in Italian."
"Dites-moi" in Soiuh Pacific. Entire lyric is in French.
Posted: 6/24/23 at 11:41pm
Of the ones mentioned that I know thus far I feel like most of them do not contain the plot that the Italian in Piazza has
Posted: 6/24/23 at 11:50pm
While I've never seen 'Thoroughly Modern Millie', I believe it has scenes (or at least dialogue?) and a song or two in Chinese. The show's use of Chinese (both Cantonese and Mandarin) has become more controversial in recent years though.
Posted: 6/25/23 at 12:06am
I'm surprised nobody has menitoned the song "Sh'ma" from Parade, although it's a short song/scene, it's still fully in Hebrew I believe. I don't know if we can count "Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish" under this, but it is fully in another language.
Posted: 6/25/23 at 10:04am
The Lion King
-throughout
Miss Saigon
-The Wedding Ceremony
The Producers
-Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop (sort of!)
