Tonight, tonight, viewers of the 2021 Oscars got a first look at Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story,” the upcoming movie musical filmed in New Jersey.
Tony nominee and Oscars pre-show host Ariana DeBose (“The Prom,” “Hamilton,” “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical”) introduced the film’s first trailer (see video above) at the 93rd Academy Awards Sunday.
DeBose plays Anita in the film, the same role that won Rita Moreno an Oscar in 1962.
The movie, filmed in Paterson, Newark and New York in 2019, stars Clifton’s Rachel Zegler as Maria. Ansel Elgort (”Baby Driver”) plays Tony.
The trailer shows Zegler and Elgort in the famous nighttime fire escape scene featuring the star-crossed lovers.
Originally set for a December 2020 release, the film was delayed a full year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A scene from the "West Side Story" set in Paterson in 2019.Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for
Spielberg’s film is a new take on the 1957 Tony Award-winning musical upon which the 1961 Oscar-winning film is based. He has promised that the film will depart significantly from the musical and previous movie.
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter Tony Kushner (“Angels in America,” “Munich”) wrote the script, and Gustavo Dudamel, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted the musical numbers. Justin Peck (“Carousel”) choreographed the movie musical.
“West Side Story” will now be released on Dec. 10, 2021.
In the spring of 2019, Paterson storefronts were transported to the past to stand in for 1950s Manhattan. Actors danced and twirled in bright dresses on city streets. The production received nearly $6.9 million in tax credits.
“West Side Story,” the 1957 musical from Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein, was inspired by the star-crossed lovers of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
Rachel Zegler, Ansel Elgort and the cast of Steven Spielberg's "West Side Story."20th Century Fox
The 1961 “West Side Story” movie, directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, starred Natalie Wood as Maria and Richard Beymer as Tony and won 10 Oscars, including best picture.
Zegler, 19, who is Colombian American, says “West Side Story” was the first musical she encountered with a lead character who was Latina.
The actor, an alum of Immaculate Conception High School in Lodi, played Maria in a 2017 BergenPAC Performing Arts School production of “West Side Story.”
Apart from Rita Moreno, white actors played Puerto Rican characters in the 1961 film — Wood was Maria and George Chakiris was her brother Bernardo.
Early on in the project, Zegler addressed the problematic ‘60s casting on Instagram.
Steven Spielberg (with the hat and button-down shirt) in Paterson, on the set of "West Side Story" in 2019.Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for
“We are working so hard to bring you the best of the best,” she said. “Correcting wrongs. Making them right. A rainbow group of people.”
DeBose, who plays Anita, is of Afro-Puerto Rican heritage. Tony-winning Cuban Canadian actor David Alvarez (“Billy Elliot the Musical”) plays Bernardo in the film, who is the leader of the Sharks gang. Josh Andrés Rivera (”Hamilton”), an actor of Puerto Rican heritage, plays Chino, one of the Sharks.
In 2018, Spielberg and Kushner made an appearance at the University of Puerto Rico for a town hall, where they talked about their plans for the film.
Spielberg said that the musical “speaks a lot to what’s happening today — it’s very relevant in terms of what’s happening on the borders, and very relevant today to essentially the rejection of anyone who isn’t white, and that’s a big part of our story.”
Rita Moreno, who won an Oscar for playing Anita in the 1961 film (a role originated on Broadway by Chita Rivera), returns in a different role for the 2021 “West Side Story.” She plays Valentina, a new version of Doc, the owner of the store where Tony works. Moreno is also a producer of the film.
Zegler has yet to make her screen debut, but she already has another major role in the works.
The actor and singer is joining the cast of the DC superhero film “Shazam: Fury of the Gods,” aka “Shazam 2,” starring Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Lucy Liu and Helen Mirren.
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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter.
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April 26, 2021 at 07:52AM
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