West Side still the Best Side – West Side Story Review

Studios love to take existing properties and make new adaptations/remakes/chapters. IP is king, and it makes sense as creative endeavors are always a gamble, so you try to mitigate them as much as possible. When it comes to these reused properties, there are genres more prone – musicals are not one of them. Before West Side Story (2021), I can’t think of another musical that has been adapted for the screen more than once, not including live stage recordings – or the new “live” theatre/TV production hybrid of recent years. West Side Story (1961) was a massively successful musical, winning ten academy awards, and was the highest-grossing film of the year (and would be the highest-grossing musical until Sound of Music surpassed it). It was ground-breaking, both in its filming that literally broke the surface of the ground to achieve some of the low angle shots it’s recognized for innovating, and Rita Moreno who played Anita (and appears in the new West Side Story as a new character Valentina taking over for Doc) became the first Latina actor to win an Academy Award. However, not all aspects of the film have aged well. Particularly the use of non-Latinx actors in the Sharks and the use of brown-face makeup of all the Shark actors to give them a universal look of what the production decided it meant to be Puerto Rican, even of Rita Moreno who herself was Puerto Rican. Still, when Steven Spielberg announced his intentions to direct a new West Side Story, many asked, why? While I’d always rather see something new, when possible, this adaptation somehow managed to make something old seem new again. A difficult feat when the source material is itself an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

The script by Tony Kushner was sharp, really making the commentary clearer and even while making the thread to Shakespeare more distinct. As a theatre nerd, I was taught West Side Story gestated much longer as East Side Story (not long after WWII), and it wasn’t until the mid-50s that it flipped to West Side Story with the first stage production in 1957, only four years before the film. In theory, when the first movie came out, the story would’ve still been contemporary, and thus, they didn’t feel the need to set a time. This one gives you a distinct setting, it lets you know they are all being moved out of the west side so that Lincoln Center can be built. This gives more nuance to the futile fight between these two groups over holding space on these few blocks when we can see it being ripped away from both of them.

The decision to incorporate more Spanish dialogue into the film where half the main characters it’s their character’s first language gave the film greater authenticity. If you, like myself, have limited Spanish language comprehension and heard about Spielberg’s decision to not have the English subtitles and were worried you would miss a lot of context, worry not because Anita (played by Ariana DeBose) has your back as she constantly reminds Maria (played by Rachel Zegler) and Bernardo (played by David Alvarez) to speak English. This works for her character who, out of all the characters in the show, is the one that most wants to assimilate to an “American” lifestyle as we see hear in the song “America” which express HER views on Puerto Rico (it’s a musical and it’s important to remember a character view is not a definitive reflection of all characters in show POV or real-world POVs).

The filming and choreography of the musical numbers were outstanding. If you go to social media, you’ll find people swooning over a puddle shot from “Maria.” However, what stood out for me was the combination of the choreography and the filming for “The Dance at Gym” sequences because it was such beautifully staged and captured barely contained aggression (that occasionally popped with a kick) that it laid out everything you needed to know for the film. “Cool” remained in Act One (it was moved to Act two and given to a new character in the original movie) but instead of being a Riff (played by Mike Faist) solo, it made it a duet between him and Tony (played by Ansel Elgort) that heightens the impact of the end of Act One (there is no act break but music theatre peeps will know the act break). Also, this film took “America” from the rooftop and to the streets, and “One Hand, One Heart” out of the store and to The Cloisters. Doing so gave the female characters more agency. In the original film, until Anita goes to Docs to try and find Tony, we only ever see their female characters at home, work, or being chaperoned to the dance. They come off very “kept” in the original film. Here they are much more their own people, even if Maria is still treated like the younger sister. As Anita says to Bernardo about Maria, she pays 1/3rd rent, same as him.

Spoiler Ahead

I can’t finish this review without speaking to Anybodys (played by non-binary actor iris menas), who is transmasculine in this adaptation. Anybodys was one of the more interesting ancillary characters in the story but having him denied entry to the Jets because they don’t accept his identity early on, misgendering him, and then when they finally acknowledge and accept him its bittersweet because they aren’t who he thought they were.