Review of West Side Story (2021) by Mstivers — 11 Dec 2021

This is not just an improvement on the original (especially with the two leads) but one of the best movie musicals I've ever seen. No one moves a camera better than Spielberg, and Kushner added depth to the characters and gave more time to the Puerto Ricans, including much dialogue in Spanish with no subtitles.

This is the first West Side Story I've seen, on stage or in film, where the gang members seemed dangerous. No one is wearing tennis shoes!! I've always considered this show to have a great score but a problematic book full of clinkers like "I want you to dig this, and dig this the most!" Tony Kushner fixed the book.