maria s close confidant. in steven spielberg s movie, moreno plays a newly created character, valentina, the widow of corner store owner doc. of course, west side story is not just a presentation of appealing songs set in the 1950s, it deals with substantive matters. the film captures a world of violence and people being displaced from their homes by developers, both still issues in new york today. it also addresses racism, the puerto rican gang, the sharks, were the target of it. it might be a romeo and juliet inspired love story, but it is a film that spotlights primitive bigotry. unfortunately, we have not learned our lesson. the tragedies result when hate is ascendant and no room is made for love, that bigotry and prejudice and racism are terrible sins. west side story certainly has a lot going for it, including some very strong reviews.
what is your level of consciousness about what is going on in any single era of all the decades since films began? i m not saying that we did anything as a countermeasure to that movie, but many, many productions of west side story have very multiracial cast where the sharks are played by talent, the kind of kids who can sing and dance and that is all that qualifies them. we just wanted for this movie to get it right in the way that we wanted every single person who plays a puerto rican to be from the latinx community and that was a mandate from the get go. i happen to live here on 110th st in upper manhattan and where i am, it is the official boundary between the upper west side and harlem. so, why am i telling you this? because i m new to the neighbourhood, i m very excited to learn that key scenes in the opening prologue of the original 1961 west side story
casting call online and was selected from more than 300,000 applicants. rachel zegler may be a novice, but she has no problem selling 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,
the 1961 west side story film was part of a world where big budget musicals rules the land. they made a lot of money and won 0scar trophies. then, in the 1970s and 80s, the cinema musical seemed to slip away, but could steven spielberg s west side story herald a rebirth? emma jones reports. emma: the road to steven spielberg s west side story started with a 1950s stage musical starring carol lawrence as maria and larry kert as tony. the broadway version of the musical west side story first appeared here in new york in 1957 in this theatre behind me and the film adaptation followed soon afterwards, not the first time that hollywood
audiences to see this new round of stories. i think we are looking for full expression, exuberance. we are looking for a cinematic experience and we are looking to sing together, maybe. there is more communal experience that we are looking for and more joy. so i think maybe it is something to do with the pandemic. recently, apart from damien chazelle s la la land in 2016, which was not an original stage production, rob marshall s chicago is the only other musical to find success as a film. it won the best picture 0scar in 2002. # that they had it coming, they had it coming. - # they had it coming all along #. the musicaljust celebrated its 25th consecutive year on broadway as a stage show. its producer knows something about what makes a hit. it has to have a story worth telling and then all of the ingredients have