- Acclaimed Flop: The film has received rapturous acclaim from both critics and audiences who saw it alike, receiving boatloads of awards nominations, with many stating that, in some ways, it might even be superior to Robert Wise's/Jerome Robbins' hallowed, Oscar-sweeping pop culture landmark of an adaptation from 1961. This did not, however, translate to success at the box office, as it grossed a little over $10 million in its first weekend against a $100 million budget. The heavily anticipated Spider-Man: No Way Home coming out a week later and becoming the biggest Christmas release ever, combined with the increasing spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant keeping older audiences at home, greatly hampered its performance. Many of the actors, including Rachel Zegler, have taken this in stride, noting that it was either them or Spider-Man.
- Actor-Inspired Element: Ariana DeBose pushed for the story to explore the identity of an Afro-Latina character, and Spielberg would regularly consult her on whether various scenes and lines felt authentic.
- Approval of God:
- Stephen Sondheim, as the only one of the four creative minds behind the original show who was still living during the film's production, was involved throughout filming and after seeing the final cut gave it high praise. He passed away two weeks before the release.
- Russ Tamblyn (Riff in the 1961 film) loved the film and Mike Faist's portrayal of Riff.
- Rita Moreno has repeatedly praised Ariana DeBose as Anita, calling her a better dancer than she ever was.
- George Chakiris (Bernardo in the 1961 film) was invited to the premiere, but had to cancel due to a cold. He nevertheless wished the film well.
- Author's Saving Throw:
- Stephen Sondheim updating the lyrics to "America," keeping its argumentative Both Sides Have a Point but removing "let it sink back in the ocean" (likely because it would have invoked Hurricane Maria) while fleshing out the complicated feelings Puerto Ricans in America may feel toward their motherland. For example, "...And the people trying."
- To avoid the brownface issue of the original film, Steven Spielberg specifically asked for Latino actors for the Shark auditions. To a lesser extent, Spielberg also averted the Latino Is Brown trope present in the 1961 film by casting Latino actors across several ethnicities. For instance, Rachel Zegler (María) is of Colombian decent and Ariana DeBose (Anita) is Afro-Latina. Ariana even feared she was too dark for the role, but Spielberg insisted she was perfect.
- It was also well publicized how all the actors in this version would do their own singing, unlike the original which infamously dubbed almost every principal soloist either partially or entirely.
- The musical and 1961 film's scripts were both full of made up slang used by the Jets that sounds like complete Narm in the modern day. Tony Kushner's screenplay for this film removes all of it and uses more timeless dialogue.
- In "Gee, Officer Krupke," the lines "My sister wears a mustache! My brother wears a dress!" come across as pretty transphobic to modern audiences. Just before the song, it's established that the Jets themselves are transphobic towards Anybodys, as they repeatedly misgender and humiliate him. This makes the lyrics very in character for them.
- "Cool" is often considered a fairly superfluous number by fans, as little of consequence happens in it. In this version, it becomes an intense battle of wits dance-off between Tony and Riff that tests their friendship.
- Kushner's script also gives more focus to the individual Sharks, who — outside of Bernardo and to a much lesser extent Chino — were much more out of focus compared to the Jets in previous versions.
- Some find María Unintentionally Unsympathetic for immediately forgiving Tony for killing her brother. This version emphasises how complicated Maria's and Bernardo's relationship was, with the latter being extremely controlling to both her and Anita as well; implying strongly that though she loved him she also felt smothered by his ways. Rachel Zegler also plays it very much as though María isn't sure of her feelings in those scenes, making it more obvious things are being done in the heat of the moment.
- Awesome, Dear Boy: David Alvarez came out of retirement from acting to work with Steven Spielberg.
- Banned in China: It was banned in multiple Middle Eastern countries for containing a transgender character, played by non-binary actor iris menas. Co-producer Kevin McCollum compared the situation to when William Shakespeare had to contend with the Puritans who viewed otherwise-innocuous works such as theatre as the work of the devil:"I think we have to remember that during Shakespeare's time, at the height, the Puritans came in and tore all of the theaters down. You couldn't go to the theater, and yet Shakespeare survived. ... I believe that love will win, and this is a story about love, made with love, and what happens when you try to keep people from loving freely. ... I think we've done our jobs as artists to make this film, and the world will discover it even if certain cultures decide they don't want it in their borders."
- Box Office Bomb: Budget: $100 million. Total worldwide gross three months after release: ~ $72 million. The lack of returns was attributed to the poor marketing, the lack of big stars in the cast outside of Ansel Elgort and Rita Moreno, the surge of the COVID-19 Omicron variant keeping older audiences (its main target demographic) at home, and being released close to the highly-anticipated Spider-Man: No Way Home. As a result, this is Spielberg's fifth film to lose money at the box office after 1941, Empire of the Sun, Munich, and The BFG.
- California Doubling: Since the West Side of Manhattan had long been redeveloped and gentrified since the time of the original musical and filming of the 1961 adaptation, the film was shot in various other locations in the New York City area that more closely resemble how the neighborhood used to look, including Harlem, Brooklyn and Newark and Paterson in New Jersey.
- Cast the Runner-Up: Much like his predecessor Russ Tamblyn, Mike Faist originally auditioned for Tony before the creators asked him to read for Riff.
- Creator Breakdown: Rita Moreno described the most difficult scene to film was the one where Valentina saves Anita from her attempted rape at the hands of the Jets. Filming that scene in the original had already brought up traumatic memories for her, to the point that the Jet actors immediately broke character when they realized she was having a panic attack and helped her calm down, so it was an especially surreal experience to play it out again now saving the character she had originally portrayed.
- Creator's Oddball: This is the first live-action musical Steven Spielberg has helmed in his storied 50 year long filmmaking career.
- Creator-Preferred Adaptation: While he died two weeks before the release, Stephen Sondheim was able to see the final cut of the film and remarked that he preferred this version to the 1961 original.
- Cross-Regional Voice Acting: The Latin American Spanish dub used voice actors from Mexico, Puerto Rico and the United States.
- Darkhorse Casting:
- This is Rachel Zegler's first screen role. She was primarily known as a YouTuber and musical theatre performer before she heard about an open casting call for the film, in which 30,000 young women auditioned to play María.
- Contrasting with most modern movie musicals, almost the entirety of the cast is made up of musical theatre performers unknown to mainstream film audiences. Rita Moreno is the most famous among the lead cast, being an EGOT winner. Except for Ansel Elgort (who became famous through non-musical films), Rachel Zegler (who got cast straight out of high school), and Corey Stoll (who's worked primarily on TV with a few supporting film roles), all of the main actors are Broadway alums.
- Dawson Casting: Like with the 1961 film and stage productions, no one in the two gangs is played by a teen, while they're supposed to be.* The closest was Rachel Zegler, who turned 18 just before filming began and thus was the same age as María. While Patrick Higgins (Baby John) was close as well, as Mike Faist referred to him being too young to drink when shooting began, the script states that Baby John is only 13-14 years old.
- Dueling Works: Released just six months after the film adaptation of another iconic stage musical centered on struggles in a Hispanic neighborhood of New York City, In the Heights. Both actually share some filming locations.
- Dyeing for Your Art: Mike Faist, who was already trim to begin with, dropped 20 pounds for the film
to give Riff a malnourished look similar to that of a 1950s gang member he saw a picture of during his research. Steven Spielberg actually had to step in to tell him to stop losing weight so he didn't endanger his health. - Enforced Method Acting: To establish a strong bond between the Jet actors, Mike Faist took it upon himself to schedule what he called "Jet-tivities", where each member took their turn picking a social activity that all of them were required to participate in. And while they didn't take it to the extremes the 1961 film actors did, they also did a few things to heighten the tension between them and the Shark actors, such as competing against them in a LARP battle and upstaging them by buying roses for all of the female cast members.
- Fake Irish: Rory is Irish, specifically from Belfast, while Jamie Harris is British, albeit of Irish descent through his father Richard Harris.
- Fake Nationality:
- While Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the USA, Rachel Zegler doesn't have a background from there (she's of Colombian and Polish descent).
- David Alvarez (Bernardo) is Cuban-Canadian.
- While Tony is stated to be of Polish descent, Ansel Elgort is Russian Jewish on his father's side and Norwegian, English, and German on his mother's.
- While a number of the actors playing the Sharks actually were Puerto Rican, including Sebastian Serra (Braulio), Julius Anthony Rubio (Quique) is Dominican and Andrei Chagas (Jochi) is Brazilian.
- Both Spanish dubs, Latin American and European, had the Puerto Rican characters voiced by Puerto Rican voice actors, while the white and non-Puerto Rican Latino characters are voiced by either Mexicans or Spaniards respectively.
- On the other, some dubs, like the Korean and Japanese ones, play this trope painfully straight, even when the Puerto Ricans characters could had being voiced by voice actors of foreign ancestry as a stand-ins for Latinos when using Spanish-speaking actors is not always a possibility.note
- In Memoriam: The film is dedicated to Arnold Spielberg, Steven's father and an electrical engineer who died of natural causes at age 103 in August 2020.
- Irony as She Is Cast:
- Unique to the casting in this film, since Tony has always been Polish-American. Bernardo dislikes his sister María's dalliance with Tony, whom he calls a "[stupid] Polack", and wants her to date a boy who is Puerto Rican like they are. María is played by Rachel Zegler, who is not Puerto Rican, but is partly of Polish descent.
- Brian d'Arcy James is a Tony nominated Broadway star, both regarded as an excellent singer and dancer. He plays Officer Krupke, who does neither of those things.
- Meaningful Release Date: The film was released a few weeks after the 60th anniversary of the Robert Wise film (October 18, 1961), a few days after the 40th anniversary of Natalie Wood's death (November 29, 1981) and the day before the 90th birthday of Rita Moreno.
- Method Acting: The actors playing the Jets did all sorts of activities such as lasertag and even LARPing to properly build up a comradery.
- No Stunt Double: Ansel Elgort naturally did his own climbing on the fire escape of María's building. He tried to convince the production not to put a safety harness on him, but was ultimately overruled.
- Posthumous Credit:
- Lyricist Stephen Sondheim died two weeks before the film's scheduled release.
- Doreen Montalvo, who briefly appears in "America" as one of the protesters, died in October 2020.
- Produced by Cast Member: In addition to playing Valentina, Rita Moreno served as executive producer.
- Production Posse: Many of the crew had previously worked with Spielberg, including screenwriter Tony Kushner, editor Michael Kahn, and cinematographer Janusz Kamiński. Even John Williams served as a music consultant.
- Promoted Fanboy: In a 2020 interview, Spielberg told Vanity Fair: "West Side Story was actually the first piece of popular music our family ever allowed into the home. I... fell completely in love with it as a kid."
- Queer Character, Queer Actor: Anybodys is stated to be a trans man in this version, and is played by non-binary actor iris menas.
- Release Date Change: The film was initially scheduled to be released on December 18, 2020, but the COVID-19 Pandemic wrecking theater attendance pushed its release back a full year, which ended up coinciding with the 1961 film's 60th anniversary.
- Real-Life Relative:
- David and Jacob Guzman, who play Tino and Junior, respectively, are twins.
- In the Latin American Spanish dub:
- Alejandro Orozco plays Tony and his father José Luis Orozco plays Officer Krupke.
- Jessica Ángeles voices Velma and her older brother Diego voices Balkan.
- Role Reprise:
- Rachel Zegler played María onstage at the Bergen Performing Arts Center at the age of 16 before being cast for the film.
- Paloma Garcia-Lee previously played Graziella when she was 15 at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
- In the Japanese dub, Mamoru Miyano, who played Tony in the 2019 Japanese version of the play, reprises that role again.
- Romance on the Set:
- Rachel Zegler (María) and Josh Andrés Rivera (Chino), who met during filming, confirmed that they were dating in February 2022. Ironically, Chino is María's spurned suitor in the film.
- Likewise Ben Cook (Mouthpiece) and Gaby Diaz (Tati) are also a couple.
- Saved from Development Hell: Spielberg wanted to make this film as far back as 2014.
- Star-Making Role: Rachel Zegler was fresh out of high school when casted in the film, and the acclaim she received for her performance made her a well-known actress virtually overnight.
- Throw It In!: Mike Faist improvised Riff leaning into the gun when the dealer holds it up to his forehead.
- Typecasting: This isn't the first time Mike Faist has played a troubled, unsympathetic youth in a musical. He was even approached to audition based on his work there.
- What Could Have Been:
- Naya Rivera campaigned to play Anita, having sung both of her songs on Glee. Ariana DeBose was ultimately cast in the role and the film was completed long before Rivera's untimely death in 2020.
- Mike Faist was originally auditioning for Tony. He performed "Maria" in the audition, and then was asked to read for Riff in his next.
- Steven Spielberg approached his longtime collaborator John Williams, who actually played piano on the soundtrack for the 1961 film, to serve as the film's music director. Williams instead suggested composer David Newman and conductor Gustavo Dudamel, though he still worked on the film as a consultant.
- One of Tony Kushner's scrapped ideas for "America" was to have the song start off with Bernardo having a dream about him and Anita being back in Puerto Rico swimming on a beach before waking up in their New York apartment. This is referenced in the finished film, as Bernardo tells Anita that he had a dream in which they were back in Puerto Rico.
- In behind-the-scenes footage, there is at least one take of the Sharks pirouetting on their way to stop the Jets, much like how they were dancing in the streets earlier. This ended up being cut from the film.
- Steven Spielberg wanted to cut "I Feel Pretty" from the film because he felt it would've disrupted the flow of the plot. He even had Stephen Sondheim's blessing to do so, but Tony Kushner managed to persuade them to keep it in.
- Tony Kushner originally placed "Gee, Officer Krupke" after the Rumble, as it was in the original musical. Steven Spielberg felt the song was too light hearted to take place in the second half of the story (which is also why Robert Wise moved it to the first half in the 1961 film) so Kushner agreed to place it earlier.
- Word of God: According to the script, Bernardo is 18, which would make him and María fraternal twins. On Twitter, however, Rachel Zegler stated that there was supposed to be an age gap of 3 to 5 years, which would make Bernardo 21 or 23 instead.
- Word of St. Paul: Both Kyle Coffman and Kevin Csolak, Ice and Diesel's respective actors, shed some light on them in the Making of West Side Story book:
- Coffman says that Ice's is real name is Isidor, but that he now commands enough authority and cool to be called "Ice" instead of "Isidor" or "Izzy".
- Csolak says that Diesel's nickname stems from his love of cars: Diesel was beaten nearly to death for trying to steal a car before being saved by Riff and joining the Jets in gratitude.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/WestSideStory2021
FollowingTrivia / West Side Story (2021)
Go To
