West Side Story

            

Steven Spielberg's West Side Story is an entertaining, if not exhilarating, rendition of the Broadway chestnut. Screenwriter Tony Kushner has wisely jettisoned much of what Pauline Kael lambasted as the "painfully old-fashioned and mawkish dialogue" of the 1961 film. Kushner has set the film a bit later than was done on Broadway, after the groundbreaking of the Lincoln center project which provided the death knell to the West Side tenements where the musical is set. This adds a poignancy to the film. We know that the world the Jets and Sharks inhabit will soon be gone forever. 

Spielberg's technical mastery is evident here, his swooping crane shots are especially effective, and Janusz Kaminski's cinematography offers a riot of color. The magnificent sets look more lived in than in the Robert Wise film. Justin Peck's snazzy choreography smartly deviates little from that of Jerome Robbins. 

However, the cast, as in the original, provides few sparks. Rachel Zegler has a fine voice, but is no more animated dramatically than Natalie Wood was. Conversely, Ansel Elgort is a better actor than Richard Beymer, but lacks the pipes to make the role of Tony sing. I enjoyed David Alvarez in the role of Bernardo slightly more than George Chakiris and Mike Faist in the role of Riff slightly less than Russ Tamblyn. Ariana DeBose is only adequate as Anita. I missed the fire Rita Moreno brought to the role. 

Moreno returns in the rejiggered role of the pharmacy proprietor and she offers, once again, the best performance in the film; a nice mixture of vulnerability and steeliness. I was grateful that the role was concocted with her in mind and appreciated a number of the other touches Mr. Kushner added. He makes the love at first sight tryst at the gym dance less hokey, by separating Tony and Maria from the dance floor and giving them a fleeting moment alone behind the bleachers. I also respected the effort to harken back to the Romeo and Juliet origin story, most specifically in the use of The Cloisters as a setting. 

David Newman's orchestration of the score, the best from any musical in the 20th century, is lively. This West Side Story is a nice redo of the original, but not definitive enough to preclude future attempts. No matter what Hollywood has done or will do to this material, it is one of Broadway's classic musicals.