westsidestory

‘West Side Story’s Ariana DeBose: The Spirit Of Anita “Just Jumped Out To Me And Sat On My Chest”

By Stevie Wong

Ten years as a working actress on Broadway has given Ariana DeBose a grounded approach to the swell of accolades accompanying her performance as the iconic Anita in Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story. Following a legacy of iconic performances, both on stage and film, DeBose is allowing herself to pave her own path, giving this moment of successes and critical appreciation a charming, honest, culturally modern spin.
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‘West Side Story’: Creating a Period-Authentic, Danceable NYC for Steven Spielberg’s Musical Reinvention
Adam Stockhausen could earn his first Oscar with Spielberg for his gritty authenticity and danceable production design work.

Bill Desowitz

For a brief time, while working on Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” designing an array of hand-crafted sets from the ’50s and ’60s in Angoulême, France, production designer Adam Stockhausen was also prepping his Oscar-nominated “West Side Story.” Stockhausen multi-tasked while readying for Steven Spielberg’s reinvention of the iconic Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim musical about the delicate dance between love and hate and the difficult immigrant experience.
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Awards Daily's Joey Moser sits down with David Alvarez who shines brightly in the outstanding cast for Steven Spielberg's West Side Story re-imagining.


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Tony Kushner explains the biggest change he made to ‘West Side Story’ [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW]

Christopher Rosen

When Steven Spielberg first pitched the idea of doing a new adaptation of “West Side Story” to Tony Kushner over breakfast eight years ago, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer was slightly apprehensive about the prospect. As Kushner recalled in an interview with the New York Times last year, he left their meeting and told his husband, the writer Mark Harris, “You’re not going to believe this. He’s lost his mind.”
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How ‘West Side Story’ Brought Tony Winner Turned Soldier David Alvarez Back to Acting

Jude Dry

Adam Driver may be the most notable former Marine to earn an Oscar nomination, but David Alvarez could be the first Tony winner turned infantryman to nab one. In Steven Spielberg’s revelatory remake of “West Side Story,” a production that both makes a case for itself while honoring the achievements of its predecessor, the actor and dancer brings renewed life to the character of Bernardo. Trained as a ballet dancer before becoming one of the youngest people to win a Best Actor Tony for his performance in “Billy Elliot the Musical” on Broadway, Alvarez had all but left show business when he got the call to audition for Bernardo.
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‘West Side Story’ star Rachel Zegler reflects on her incredible breakout: ‘It’s ridiculous to think about’

Christopher Rosen

It was three years ago this month that Rachel Zegler’s life forever changed. On January 14, 2019, Zegler, then in high school, was officially announced to play Maria in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” remake. More than 30,000 young women had auditioned for the role.
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Ariana DeBose talks about her ‘life-changing’ role in ‘West Side Story’

Brooke Cain
The News & Observer

There was a moment when Ariana DeBose was auditioning for the role of Anita in Steven Spielberg’s new film version of “West Side Story” when she knew her life was going to change.

DeBose, who grew up in Raleigh and Wake Forest, North Carolina, and has gone on to perform on Broadway in “Hamilton” and “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical,” described the moment in an interview recently with The News & Observer.
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Mike Faist on nihilistic teens, stardom, and "West Side Story"

by Nathaniel R

The reinvention of West Side Story (2021) has been the subject of much conversation since it opened, from Spielberg's incredibly enduring career, to the health of the movie musical genre, to the complicated subject of its Oscar prospects since the 1961 picture was a sweeper. The one thing that's felt especially unanimous in the response, though, is the exciting work from a trio of Broadway breakouts making a very big leap into movie stardom: Tony nominees Ariana DeBose and Mike Faist and Tony winner David Alvarez (Bernardo). I had the pleasure of sitting down with our new Riff, Mike Faist a couple of weeks ago to discuss the movie and his career (well, sort of. Read on).
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Rita Moreno and Ariana DeBose: From One Anita to Another
The two actresses explain what the new “West Side Story” gets right, what the original lacked and why playing the role they’re both known for is so gut-wrenching.

By Melena Ryzik

“Hello, birthday queen,” Ariana DeBose said, greeting her “West Side Story” castmate Rita Moreno, newly and notably aged 90.

It was Sunday afternoon, and DeBose, 30, was in bed at her home on the Upper East Side, propped up on pillows, her rescue cats, Isadora Duncan and Frederick Douglass, occasionally parading through the Zoom call. Moreno was across the country, at home in Berkeley, Calif., camera-ready above the waist in a red sweater and mega-jewelry, but stealthily in pink pajamas and fluffy slipper socks below. How were her many birthday celebrations? “I’m happy to report that they’re endless,” she said. “I do feel queenly and royal.”

Moreno, who arrived in New York from Puerto Rico in 1936, famously won an Oscar — the first Latina to do so — for playing Anita in the 1961 “West Side Story.” DeBose, who grew up in North Carolina and describes herself as Afro-Latina, is earning critical raves and awards chatter as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s new version, which also features Moreno in the newly created role of Valentina, a shopkeeper.
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Director Steven Spielberg and the cast of “West Side Story,” including Rachel Zegler, Ansel Elgort, Ariana DeBose, Corey Stoll, David Alverez, Mike Faist join CinemaBlend’s Corey Chichizola to discuss the iconic adaptation. They dive into Stephen Sondheim’s legacy, his last words to Spielberg just a week before his passing, working with Academy Award winner Rita Moreno, and so much more.