Watch the new trailer for Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of ‘West Side Story’

Today, The Walt Disney Company and 20th Century Studios released a new trailer, poster and stills for Academy Award winning director Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of the musical West Side Story, which will open in U.S. theaters on December 10, 2021.

Directed by Academy Award winner Steven Spielberg, from a screenplay by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Tony Kushner, who also serves as an executive producer, West Side Story tells the classic tale of fierce rivalries and young love in 1957 New York City. This reimagining of the beloved musical stars Ansel Elgort (Tony); Rachel Zegler (María); Ariana DeBose (Anita); David Alvarez (Bernardo); Mike Faist (Riff); Josh Andrés Rivera (Chino); Ana Isabelle (Rosalía); Corey Stoll (Lieutenant Schrank); Brian d’Arcy James (Officer Krupke); and Rita Moreno (as Valentina, who owns the corner store in which Tony works). Moreno is one of only three artists to be honored with Academy, Emmy, Grammy, Tony and Peabody Awards – also serves as one of the film’s executive producers. She won her Oscar playing Anita in the 1961 adaptation of the musical which won 10 Academy Awards.

Tony Award winner Justin Peck choreographs the musical numbers in the film; Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor and Grammy Award winner Gustavo Dudamel helms the recording of the iconic score; Academy Award-nominated composer and conductor David Newman (Anastasia), arranges the score; Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home, Thoroughly Modern Millie), supervises the cast on vocals; and Grammy-nominated music supervisor Matt Sullivan (Beauty and the Beast, Chicago) serves as executive music producer for the film.

The film is produced by Spielberg, Academy Award-nominated producer Kristie Macosko Krieger and Tony Award-winning producer Kevin McCollum. This new West Side Story has been adapted for the screen from the original 1957 Broadway show (itself based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet), with book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and concept, direction and choreography by Jerome Robbins. 

20^th Century Studios and The Walt Disney Company will release West Side Story in U.S. theaters on December 10, 2021.

Here is the new trailer plus several new images and a new poster.

Photos: Niko Tavernise and 20th Century Studios

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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