Steven Spielberg brings West Side Story back to the big screen with his latest adaptation starring Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler.
Inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story is a musical that tells the stories of two lovers from rival gangs and different ethnic backgrounds.
The original music was created in 1957, with Stephen Sondheim, who recently died at the age of 91, writing the lyrics for the show.
As one of the most famous musicals of all time, all eyes (and ears) will be on the cast to see how they perform the songs made famous in the stage musical, then again in the 1961 movie. Many film-adaptations of musicals have recently made the creative decision to have their actors sing live on set, so how did Spielberg and the latest cast of West Side Story decide to make their movie?
Do the cast of West Side Story sing live?
The singing heard within the 2021 iteration of West Side Story is a mix of live performances and pre-recorded numbers.
Amongst the many numbers in the movie, just three and a half songs were sung live by members of the cast on set.
The songs performed live were “One Hand, One Heart,” “Somewhere” and “A Boy Like That/I Have a Love.” In November, Zegler revealed one of the songs she sang live on her Twitter account, but admitted she wasn’t sure if she was allowed to mention that publicly.
It was revealed in the accompanying book, The Making of the Steven Spielberg Film West Side Story, that at Elgort’s request, he sang portions of “Maria” live on set despite having playback available to support him.
All of the other songs were recorded prior to filming and used as playback on set.
Who stars in West Side Story?
Star of Baby Driver and The Fault in Our Stars, Elgort leads the cast as Tony, a member of the Jets while newcomer Zegler plays Maria, affiliated with the Sharks. This is Zegler’s first movie role but she is also set to star in Shazam! Fury of the Gods and will play Snow White in an upcoming live-action version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Elsewhere in the cast Ariana DeBose is Anita, David Alvarez is Bernardo and Mike Faist is Riff. Rita Moreno, who played Anita in the 1961 West Side Story movie, switches roles to Valentina in the latest version.
Ant-Man actor Corey Stoll and Tony Award-nominee Brian d’Arcy James play Lieutenant Schrank and Officer Krupke, respectively.
Tony Kushner wrote the screenplay for this movie adaptation while Spielberg directs. Composer David Newman arranged and adapted the original score by Leonard Bernstein.
West Side Story was due to be released in 2020 but was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After a long wait, Spielberg’s West Side Story is finally out in movie theaters now.
