20 facts you might not know about 'West Side Story'

West Side Story began on stage in 1957. The musical was directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins with music from Leonard Bernstein and lyrics from Stephen Sondheim. It was nominated for six Tonys, winning two. This led to the 1961 film, which was co-directed by Robbins. It was a huge hit and got 11 Oscar nominations, winning 10 of them, including Best Picture.

Spielberg made it known years ago that he wanted to direct an adaptation of West Side Story. He’s loved it since he was a child and has mentioned the idea of adapting it a few times over the years. When he got serious about it around 2014, 20th Century Fox bought the rights for him.

Spielberg has directed massive blockbusters and Oscar-winning dramas. He never seemed to be a musical guy. And yet, apparently directing a musical has been on his bucket list for a while. Hook was initially conceived as a musical, but only a couple of the numbers remained in the film.

Spielberg and Tony Kushner seem to really enjoy working together. Kushner served as a screenwriter on Munich and Lincoln. He’s also a Tony and Pulitzer winner for his play Angels in America. Kushner started working on West Side Story's screenplay before Spielberg could get on board, but Spielberg was in line to direct already. The two have collaborated again on Spielberg’s The Fabelmans.

In January 2018, before Spielberg was preparing to direct the movie, an open casting call was announced for the main characters in the film. The production was interested in unknown names for the likes of Maria and Tony, with the story and the director able to be the star. While a known actor in Ansel Elgort was eventually cast as Tony, Rachel Zegler won the role of Maria. Zegler is a complete newcomer, as she had no previous film or TV credits.

Zegler was cast in high school. When she got the news that she was cast as Maria, she had been preparing for her school’s production of Shrek: The Musical. Maybe that musical is a nice lead-in to West Side Story. Brian d’Arcy James, who plays Officer Krupke in the movie, originated the role of Shrek on Broadway.

The legendary Rita Moreno won an Oscar for playing Anita in the 1961 version of West Side Story. She is the one notable returnee to this cast. While Ariana DeBose stepped into the role of Anita, Moreno was on board as Valentina, a role largely created for her.

While their roles only amounted to extra work, three men who played Jets in the 1961 movie popped up in Spielberg’s adaptation. Harvey Evans, David Bean, and Bert Michaels, aka Mouthpiece, Snowboy, and Tiger, got their little background cameos.

Mike Faist is getting a lot of love for his performance as Riff. He put some thought and exercise into his performance. After seeing photos of gang members from the 1950s, Faist decided to lose 20 pounds to copy that look.

Many a boy who could dance made their way into a performance of Billy Elliot. As such, it’s not surprising that West Side Story features a few guys with history in that musical. Ben Cook, Julian Elia, Myles Erlick, and Daniel Patrick Russell were once part of the show's cast. However, David Alvarez, who plays Bernardo, won a Tony for playing Billy on Broadway.

Initially, the writing and the casting were going on with Spielberg not completely involved. The reason? He was working on the fifth Indiana Jones film. The thought was that Spielberg would likely make West Side Story his next project after finishing that movie. Then, his Indiana Jones film got pushed back, and Spielberg jumped on board for West Side Story. Spielberg is no longer directing the fifth Indiana Jones, with James Mangold stepping into the role.

As per usual, Janusz Kaminski was the cinematographer for West Side Story. This is his 15th collaboration with the director, and Kaminski has won two Oscars for his work on Spielberg films Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan. Kaminski went to great lengths on this movie to make the cinematography look as much like the 1961 film as possible, even though technology and film practices have changed quite a bit.

Kushner said that his screenplay was influenced more by the stage version, but Spielberg’s West Side Story is not merely recreating the past. Justin Peck was hired to do the choreography, and while they paid homage to Robbins’ choreography, there is plenty of original work. Additionally, composer David Newman did his own adaptation of Bernstein’s score for the movie.

By and large, the movie uses the song order from the stage version, save for two instances. “Gee, Officer Krupke” is moved earlier, which is also what the 1961 movie did. “Cool” was also moved and is sung by Tony to Riff, whereas on stage, Riff sings it to his fellow Jets.

With all the choreography and the chaos of shooting a film, it isn’t surprising that most songs were prerecorded and then played back on set. However, three songs were sung live on the set. Those songs are “One Hand, One Heart,” “Somewhere,” and “A Boy Like That/I Have a Love.”

Many of the movie's characters, including the Sharks members, are Puerto Rican. Naturally, they speak Spanish. However, Spielberg did not use English subtitles when characters were speaking Spanish. Spielberg did that to put the two languages on equal footing, but it’s not new for him. He’s long spoken of disliking subtitles and basically never uses them.

After a COVID-19 pandemic delay, West Side Story had its premiere at Lincoln Center on November 17, 2021. Much of the cast was there, as was Sondheim. This turned out to be the final public appearance of Sondheim, as the icon died less than a month later.

Spielberg had a famously complicated relationship with his father, Arnold, which is readily apparent when you watch his movies. The two had reconciled in recent years, though. While the movie was in production, Arnold died at 103. Given the connection West Side Story has to Spielberg’s childhood, that may have felt significant. The movie is dedicated to Arnold’s memory.

West Side Story was made on a budget of $100 million. In a vacuum, a big Spielberg movie would have been able to make that back and then some, though when you factor in marketing and things of that nature, it needed to make a reported $300 million to break even. Alas, due to the pandemic, the movie flopped at the box office. 

The movie is getting love from critics groups and award shows. While the Golden Globes are award show non grata these days, it won three of them out of four nominations. Zegler and DeBose both won, and the movie won Best Picture – Musical/Comedy as well. Ariana DeBose made history for winning Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars.