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‘West Side Story’ Is Classic Spielberg, Classic Moviemaking — Just Classic, Period.
The director’s remake is both a hat-tip to the original (and old-school Hollywood) and a slightly revised version that gives this street-gang ‘Romeo & Juliet’ a sense of urgency

By DAVID FEAR

Movie musicals are back — maybe you’ve heard? In the past few years, we’ve basked in the glow of new gotta-sing-gotta-dance extravaganzas, from recent Broadway hits (Dear Evan Hansen) and cult favorites (The Prom) to Tony winners (Into the Heights) and personal tributes to/from Tony winners (Tick, Tick…Boom!). Want something original and weird? Check out Annette, the oddball Leos Carax/Sparks collaboration that, in a perfect world, will soon join the midnight-movie canon. Or perhaps something straight, with no chaser? Go watch Hamilton, a concert-film-like document of the original-cast production that still miraculously manages to make good use of the form. And that’s not even counting the various animated movies that are bursting with catchy, lung-testing show tunes. Articles have duly noted that a new wave is cresting, and we’re witnessing another return of what was once a staple of any moviegoer’s well-rounded diet. And yet….


And yet, bountiful crop or not, it didn’t necessarily feel like the musical was actually back. Not really. Not until now. Not until the moment you see those next-gen Jets started snapping their fingers.
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Movie Review: West Side Story

Mike Tyrkus

Although the thought of remaking a revered classic such as West Side Story (1961) may seem like the sort of career suicide that almost befell Gus Van Sant after he remade Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho in 1998, Steven Spielberg’s epic interpretation of the beloved musical is destined to be enshrined as a classic in its own right, anchored by a plethora of fine performances and artisans performing at the top of their individual games.
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Spielberg's 'West Side Story' brings deeper focus on the Puerto Rican experience
“It’s not a political movie. It’s still ‘West Side Story,’” legendary actor Rita Moreno said. “But it has more awareness about what that actually means.”

By Nicole Acevedo

As any fan of "West Side Story" would expect, Steven Spielberg's remake of the classic 1957 Broadway musical starts off with the distinctive three-note whistle from the Jets gang as they make their way around New York City's San Juan Hill while it's being demolished to make way for a wealthier neighborhood.

Images of the rubble in the once predominantly Black and Puerto Rican neighborhood stand next to a sign saying “Property Purchased by New York City for Slum Clearance” — placing audiences in New York City's 1950s urban renewal period, when an array of low-income communities were being displaced.

The tensions that come with displacement and the urge to protect their homes from the nearing wrecking ball fuel the rivalry between two teenage street gangs — the Jets, a white gang, and the Sharks, a Puerto Rican gang. Their rivalry intensifies when Tony, a Jet, falls in love with Maria, the younger sister of Sharks leader Bernardo.
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Mike Faist was a ‘blue-collar working theater actor.’ Now, he’s ‘West Side Story’s’ standout.

By Thomas Floyd

When screenwriter Tony Kushner reflects on his favorite memory from the filming of “West Side Story,” Steven Spielberg’s rousing reimagining of the beloved musical, he cites neither a glimpse of the distinguished director’s visual mastery, nor a tune from Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s canonical songbook. Rather, he fixates on an unassuming moment of on-set cleanup.

It came after the shooting of an early scene, in which Mike Faist’s Riff and his Upper West Side gang, the Jets, splash paint on a mural of the Puerto Rican flag to antagonize the Sharks, their territorial rivals. As Kushner lingered on set, and crew members got to work scrubbing the paint off the mural, he glanced over and caught an unexpected sight.
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The story behind the re-imagining of several key West Side Story musical numbers
And suddenly the name will never be the same...

By Maureen Lee Lenker

West Side Story and its iconic musical numbers are a cultural institution.

Indeed, director Steven Spielberg says that's what attracted him to put his own spin on the material in the first place. "The score by Leonard Bernstein is one of the greatest scores ever written for an American musical," he says. "West Side Story is the greatest American musical."
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With ‘West Side Story,’ choreographer Justin Peck brought dance into the Spielberg universe

By Sarah L. Kaufman

At one point in the making of the new movie version of “West Side Story,” Justin Peck, the film’s choreographer, found himself careening around the studio with Steven Spielberg, pushing the director in a swivel chair so he could shoot the dancers with his phone.

That’s when Peck realized he’d hurtled topsy-turvy into a crazy, wondrous universe. He’d also met a major goal: getting the Spielbergian operation to trust in the power of a wordless, poetic art form.

That, after all, was Peck’s first task: convincing Spielberg, who’d never made a movie musical, that dance can tell a story all on its own. Without dialogue or special effects.
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West Side Story Takes Less Than $1 Million In Thursday Previews

BY SANDY SCHAEFER

Movie musicals, like westerns, once ruled the box office, but that was decades ago and things are very different now. In 2021 alone, "Everybody's Talking About Jamie" and "tick, tick... BOOM!" went straight to streaming, "In the Heights" bombed financially despite an excellent critical response (colorism criticisms aside), and "Dear Evan Hansen" was pretty much DOA, with its scathing reviews discouraging those who weren't already turned off by its depressing premise. There was also "Annette," but I don't think anyone expected a film musical directed by Leos Carax to catch on with mainstream U.S. audiences.
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West Side Story Star Mike Faist On Playing Riff & The 'Jet-Tivities' Weekend

BY JENNA BUSCH

Mike Faist is no stranger to musicals. He originated the role of Connor Murphy in the Broadway musical "Dear Evan Hansen," for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for best featured actor in a musical. He also originated the role of Morris Delancey in Disney's "Newsies." He's been in films like "The Unspeakable Act," "Wildling," and "Panic." And now, he's taking on the role of Riff in the Steven Spielberg-directed "West Side Story." 
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Watch on YouTube

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Watch on YouTube