QPORIT

Steven Spielberg's new version of West Side Story, set on the streets of New York, was previewed in an unusually good hour-long special on ABC. West Side Story is a truly great musical and by all appearances this should be a great film. The music is by Leonard Bernstein, with lyrics by Steven Sondheim. Tony Kushner wrote the screenplay for this version. Arthur Laurents  wrote the book for the original stage version. The story is adapted from Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.

The actors are young, and many have not worked before in films. Rachel Zegler, (the new Maria) was last seen in her High School musical. The excerpts shown demonstrate prodigious new talent through out the cast. Rita Moreno (Anita in the 1961 film version) has a role; and many roles are cast with actors whose ethnicity and background matches their characters. 

Although I have not seen Spielberg's film version, yet, I've seen the original version of the story, which was missing the music, and set in Italy, but was beautifully written, and very powerful emotionally. 

CAST:

Ansel Elgort as Tony

Rachel Zegler as María

Ariana DeBose as Anita

David Alvarez as Bernardo

Rita Moreno as Valentina

Brian d'Arcy James as Officer Krupke

Corey Stoll as Lieutenant Schrank

Mike Faist as Riff

Josh Andrés Rivera as Chino

Iris Menas as Anybodys

David Aviles Morales as Aníbal

Sebastian Serra as Braulio

Ricardo Zayas as Chago

Carlos E. Gonzalez as Chucho

Ricky Ubeda as Flaco

Andrei Chagas as Jochi

Adriel Flete as Julito

Jacob Guzman as Junior

Labels: Arthur Laurents, film, Leonard Bernstein, musical, Rachel Zegler, Rita Moreno, Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare, Steven Sondheim, Steven Spielberg, theater, Tony Kushner, West Side Story

# posted by QPORIT @ 1:56 AM