Review: Steven Spielberg's 'West Side Story' celebrates the classic street-level musical, while finding fresh takes on the material

Steven Spielberg’s lush, lovingly captured version of “West Side Story” is proof that a movie — no matter when it’s set or how old its source material is — is firmly a mirror of the time in which it’s made.

Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner decided to set this remake in 1957, the same year composer Leonard Bernstein, lyricist Stephen Sondheim and choreographer Jerome Robbins introduced their street-savvy “Romeo & Juliet” on Broadway. And all the period details, from the cars on the street to Doc’s candy store on the corner, are true to that esthetic.

We’re quickly introduced to the two sides in conflict in New York: The Jets, the white street toughs, and the Sharks, the up-and-coming Puerto Rican immigrants. The two gangs are battling over turf that’s quickly disappearing, as the old neighborhood buildings are being torn down to make way for the new, shiny Lincoln Center.

The rival leaders — Riff (Mike Faist) for the Jets, and Bernardo (David Alvarez) for the Sharks — are going to meet at a school dance to make plans for a rumble. Riff wants his Jets co-founder, Tony (Ansel Elgort), there for leverage, though Tony is reluctant because he’s on parole and trying to stay straight, but also excited enough to go that he sings “something’s coming, something good.” Bernardo will attend the dance with his girlfriend, Anita (Ariana DeBose, from the original “Hamilton” cast), and his 18-year-old sister, Maria (played by newcomer Rachel Zegler).

What no one — other than we in the audience — counts on is that Tony and Maria will see each other across the dance floor, and fall in love at first sight. It’s enough to leave Tony marveling at the name Maria: “Say it loud and there’s music playing / Say it soft and it’s almost like praying.”

So what’s new in this version that we didn’t get in the 1961 film, directed by Robbins and Robert Wise, that won 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture?

Perhaps the most noticeable thing early on is that the narrative balance, which used to tip generously to the Jets — reflecting the lily-white Hollywood mentality of the time — is somewhat more even. And many of the scenes involving the Sharks break from English to Spanish, and Spielberg and Kushner opted to leave those passages unsubtitled. Even if some viewers don’t know Spanish, they’ll get the gist of it.

There’s more authenticity in the casting, particularly for Maria. Zegler, a radiant discovery, is of Colombian descent — which isn’t Puerto Rican, but it’s much closer than either Natalie Wood or Marni Nixon (whose singing voice came out of Wood’s mouth) ever got.

Some of the classic songs are repurposed to strong effect. Maria sings the usually frivolous “I Feel Pretty” while working on a department store clean-up crew, and it’s turned into a sly commentary on consumerism. And the plaintive “Somewhere” is given not to naive Tony and Maria, but to the neighborhood sage, the owner of Doc’s candy store: Doc’s Puerto Rican widow, Valentina — tenderly played by the legend herself, Rita Moreno (who won an Oscar portraying Anita in the ’61 version). 

Justin Peck’s dynamic choreography keeps the best of Robbins’ cool angular moves while making the dance feel more naturally part of the cityscape. The rumble itself, though clearly choreographed, feels like a real fight with real stakes — even before the knives come out.

Kushner’s screenplay quietly but forcefully brings out themes that might have been too hot-button for the ’61 version. The attack on Anita by the Jets is one instance, as is the Shakespearean finale. The shadow of gentrification, as Lincoln Center’s rise is about to displace both whites and Puerto Ricans, also looms over the characters in ways the ’61 scarcely considered.

People will ask why Spielberg would remake “West Side Story” when the original still exists. I think of it as following the Broadway tradition of reviving classic works every few years, to let a new generation of talent test itself against the material. Besides, Hollywood has made multiple movies out of many of Shakespeare’s plays, and no one complains about it. If it’s good enough for Shakespeare, it should be good for Bernstein and Sondheim’s beautiful collaboration.

——

‘West Side Story’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, December 10, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for some strong violence, strong language, thematic content, suggestive material and brief smoking. Running time: 156 minutes.