a musicalfilm because i knew i could not sing and dance, so it is a tremendous way of sort of throwing myself into a genre that physically i would never be part of except to be able to tell a story in that idiom. i have a very good ear for music, because my mum is a concert pianist, but i cannot move my legs and i cannot dance and i cannot sing to save my life, but i have been in love with west side story since i was ten and heard the original broadway cast album that came out the year the play opened in new york. and my parents brought it home and it was an extraordinary experience and i have tremendous recollections, as i started having kids, of basically putting on the 1961 robert wise movie for them or playing them the soundtrack from the original broadway show and i have got videos of all my kids playing all the roles growing up in our house. you know, the film that you have created, in many ways it deals with love, but it also deals with violence
west side story is probably the first musical that really resonated with me and that i really grappled with and thought about and considered and the idea that the story was being told, this timeless story, this romeo and juliet story, was being told through verse and through song was really compelling and intriguing and provocative for me. one of the songs that has stuck with me and that i hold onto from west side story is america because it explores issues that are important and relevant to me as a latino in this country. it explores some of the tensions and issues that we are still grappling with today.
this grand production in promotional interviews. it is not the west side story many people remember. it is so much different in a sense that there is so much more context and if you re not going to come for the music, you should come for the characters, you should come for the dynamics, you should come for the dance in general, you should come for the colours. # today, all day- i had the feeling.# actor ansel elgort, known for his role in edgar wright s film baby driver, among others, plays the male lead in west side story, tony. what s forever? like, i want to be with you forever? you don t want to start maybe with, i would like to take you out to coffee ? one of the best performances in the movie comes from rita moreno who was in the original 1961 west side story, then in the role of anita, maria s close confidant. in steven spielberg s movie, moreno plays a newly created character, valentina, the widow of corner store owner doc.
one of the things that is very interesting to me in considering west side story is that it grapples with not only how this neighbourhood was demolished and raised and what that might have meant to black and brown new yorkers who lived on these blocks, it also grapples with some really specific tensions in our own city, in new york city, many of which are still relevant today. and the movie gives a way to think about and reflect on the moment in which west side story was created. in the 505, in new york, at a time when there was tension and turmoil, at a time when this neighbourhood that we are sitting in right now was demolished to make a space for what we are looking at as we sit here. five or six years ago,
of the big movie events of 2021, the release of steven spielberg s long awaited adaptation of the much loved broadway musical west side story. i have never seen you before. you are not puerto rican. is that 0k? do you want to start world war three? west side story is a love story inspired by shakespeare s romeo and juliet, set amid warring teenage gangs the sharks and thejets in new york in the 19505. it is an adaptation of the 1957 musical from four greats director and choreographer jerome robbins, composer leonard bernstein, arthur laurents who did the book, and lyricist stephen sondheim. at the world premiere of his adaptation of west side story, stephen spielberg made it clear he was indebted to all the musicals creative forefathers. the first feeling is gratitude and such an honour to be able