West Side Story (2021)

Steven Spielberg directs a new big-screen adaptation of the acclaimed stage musical with West Side Story. In 1957 Manhattan, the street gangs of the caucasian Jets and Puerto Rican Sharks fight for control of San Juan Hill on Manhattan's West Side. The gang leaders of Riff (Mike Faist) and Bernardo (David Alvarez) are ready to settle their dispute in a rumble, but the Riff waits to make a challenge until after a local dance. It is at the dance where Tony (Ansel Elgort), Riff's best friend who no longer wants to be part of the Jets, meets and falls in love with Maria (Rachel Zegler), the sister of Bernardo. As tensions increase between the Jets and the Sharks, Tony and Maria make plans to run away together.

West Side Story is a film musical directed by Steven Spielberg, which of course is based on the 1957 broadway musical of the same name by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and book by Arthur Laurents adapted for this new film version by Tony Kushner. West Side Story was previously adapted as a 1961 film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, which went on to win ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Based on the number of accolades received by the previous adaptation, the question has to be asked why Steven Spielberg opted to remake West Side Story, with the simple answer being that he had grown up loving the music from the original stage musical. Reportedly, this new adaptation of West Side Story adheres closer to the original stage production and Stephen Sondheim, who viewed a cut of the film before he died last year, reportedly preferred this version of West Side Story to the original 1961 film.

With the exception of the lead role of Tony, played by Ansel Elgort (Baby Driver), most of the cast of West Side Story are known more for their roles on Broadway than film. This includes Mike Faist (the stage version of Dear Evan Hansen) as Riff, David Alvarez (Billy Elliot the Musical) as Bernardo, and Ariana DeBose (Hamilton) as Bernardo's girlfriend Anita. Rachel Zegler makes her film debut as Maria, a role she previously played on stage. The supporting cast of West Side Story includes Rita Moreno, who won an Oscar for playing Anita in 1961 original, playing new character Valentina (a gender-swapped version of Doc from the original musical), as well as Brian d'Arcy James as Officer Krupke and Corey Stoll as Lieutenant Schrank.

Primarily due to the quality of the musical numbers, this new version of West Side Story ends up standing quite well on its own. However, when push comes to shove, I have to say that I still prefer the 1961 original, if only for the fact that it is such an acclaimed film and it is almost unnecessary that there really needed to be a new film version of West Side Story, no matter how well done this new film turned out to be.

Trailer for West Side Story (2021)