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Half a century after the musical written by
Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim won 10 Oscars, Spielberg
has reimagined the love story set among rival street gangs for a
new generation but with the reverence of a true fan.
"The lyrics have been part of my life for 65 years," he said.
"All my kids memorized the album and I have home videos of my
children performing 'West Side Story' in our living room."
Sondheim, who wrote the lyrics for the musical, died at age 91
three days before the world premiere of the new film.
"West Side Story," Spielberg's first shot at directing a
musical, opens in movie theaters worldwide this week with all
the Latino characters played by Latinx actors and choreography
that gives an affectionate nod to the ground-breaking original
without directly reproducing it.
"No-one playing a Shark, girl or boy, is not of Latino or Latinx
descent... We didn't want to have to put make up on anyone's
face to convince an audience that they were Puerto Rican,"
Spielberg said.
Based on Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," the new movie puts
more emphasis on issues of race, immigration, poverty and
marginalization that dominate life in a 1950s slum neighborhood
of New York.
"Even though we still set our film in 1957, it was very
important to put it in the vernacular of the way this generation
speaks and interacts with each other today," Spielberg said.
"We needed to update the play to make it acceptable to the
complexities that people have with each other in today's
society, from school campuses to politics to the ideological
divide."
Spielberg said it was an intimidating task, but he needn't have
worried. The film, which sees original Puerto Rican star Rita
Moreno, now 89, bridging the generations by taking on a
different role, has won rave reviews.
Britain's Daily Telegraph called it "Spielberg's finest film in
20 years" while the Los Angeles Times said it was "both glorious
throwback and gentle corrective."
Newcomer Rachel Zegler, 20, plays Maria with a rare feistiness.
"I think she's usually been portrayed as very black and white,
virginal ingénue, and this is just not your Momma's Maria," said
Zegler. "She's very different, very nuanced."
Moreno, who in 1962 became the first Latina to win an Oscar for
her role as the fiery Anita, said she had mixed feelings about
returning to the story that launched her career.
"I'm not gonna say I wasn't envious. I wished I could be that
young again and do it again, obviously. But that wasn't going to
be, and I get this beautifully written part," she said.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; editing by Diane Craft)
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