The cast of West Side Story take their opening night curtain call on Thursday. In the front row, from left, are George Akram, Karen Olivo, Matt Cavenaugh, Josefina Scaglione and Cody Green. (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

A Broadway revival of the beloved musical West Side Story opened in New York Thursday evening, with director Arthur Laurents's attempt at a more authentic retelling drawing mixed reviews.

Laurents, who is 91 and wrote the book for the original 1957 production, has said he wanted to introduce more realism into the beloved Romeo and Juliet-inspired tale.

One of the most prominent changes is to have the musical's Puerto Rican characters actually speak and sing in their native Spanish in certain scenes, with Lin-Manuel Miranda — creator of Tony-winning musical In the Heights, a contemporary story of Latin-Americans in Manhattan — enlisted to translate portions of the libretto as well as some of Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein's famous songs.

Performers of Latino descent also play the Puerto Rican roles in the revival.

"The use of so much Spanish language has a huge aesthetic impact," according to a review in the Chicago Tribute.

"It changes the show's entire dynamic, offering greater insight into what it was like to be a Puerto Rican immigrant in the 1950s and, similarly and paradoxically, explaining why these linguistic differences so terrified the Sharks."

The New York Times, however, called the translation "only partly successful," while Newsday thought it overused.

"When entire scenes go by in another language … the audience feels as left out as the new immigrants," said the Newsday review.

Nevertheless, most critics showered praise on choreographer Joey McKneely's interpretation of the legendary moves created by Jerome Robbins and Bernstein's celebrated music.

"The majority of this young, 48-strong cast rush laterally and vertically, at and around each other, celebrating the original Jerome Robbins choreography ... and yet also subliminally declaring that this is a West Side Story that understands it has arrived in a new city in a new racial and sexual moment," according to the Tribune.

Many also hailed Laurents's so-called "discovery," Argentine ingénue Josefina Scaglione, who portrays the innocent and lovely lead Maria, and actress Karen Olivo (also an In the Heights alumni) as the fiery, scene-stealing Anita.

West Side Story continues at Broadway's Palace Theatre.

With files from the Associated Press