West Side Story (2021)

Not many directors would risk remaking such a celebrated musical on stage and screen as West Side Story but Steven Spielberg has the chutzpah so to do.

Does he pull it off?

Yes and no.

Yes, he is brilliant film maker and sensibly sticks to  the original.

No, because the original score and soundtrack of Leonard Bernstein and lyrics of Stephen Sondheim are so well known that these renditions lack impact.

I reckon I know every word of America, Somewhere There Is A Place For Us, Tonight, I Feel Pretty, The Jet Song, Cool.

The only difference to the original is that the singing voice of Natalie Wood’s Maria was dubbed and Rachel Zegler’s is not.

There was some tweaking and fine tuning.

Rachel Zegler was a more authentic Maria in age and casting Puerto Ricans for the Sharks gang more credible.

Rita Moreno appeared in both films.

I preferred Ansal Egholt to Richard Beymes, who was a beef hunk as Tony but more wooden.

Yet for all that there was feeling of deja vu and on occasion the story dragged as the film was two and a half  hours long.

The best acting came from Ariana deBose as Anita but, more than the performances, I noticed how effective was the camerawork hoovering and swooping on the quarter being the subject of slum clearance.

It was my first visit to  an actual cinema since lockdown.

I appreciated the bigger screen – less so my neighbours chomping away.

The auditorium was 25%  full and I guess a younger audience would have provided more collective emotion.

Great musicals have certain common features, one of which is a theme which resonates. This – based on Romeo and Juliet – has the theme of love conquering immigrant v xenophobic prejudice and gang warfare.

South Pacific dealt with racial prejudice, My Fair Lady the rigidity and crassness of the British caste system.

They also all have at last 6 great numbers.

So West Side Story ticks these boxes but I do wonder if the admiring critics praised it so much as it was Spielberg.