The most beautiful sound you’ve ever heard is making its way into theaters this December. Disney has released a new trailer for Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of West Side Story.
It begins with newcomer Rachel Zegler’s Maria gorgeously singing the opening bars of “Tonight” a cappella while standing on her fire escape. “This is my first time in New York City,” she then says, giving audiences a first taste of Tony-winner Tony Kushner’s updated screenplay. “I want to be happy here. I want to make a home.”
A swirling montage follows, showing Maria getting ready for the dance that will change her life—where she will meet Ansel Elgort’s Tony and further ignite the war between rival gangs the Jets and the Sharks. The trailer is light on conflict (and Tony, for that matter), but heavy on the iconic 1950s imagery and music that made the original West Side Story an instant classic and Academy Award best picture winner. We see bits of the dance in the gymnasium as well as the lead-up to the rumble, all while Leonard Bernstein’s iconic score swells underneath.
Along with Zegler and Elgort, West Side Story also stars Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, Mike Faist, Josh Andrés Rivera, Ana Isabelle, Corey Stoll, and Brian d’Arcy James. EGOT winner Rita Moreno—who won the best supporting actress Oscar for playing Anita in the original—plays Valentina, the owner of the corner store in which Tony works, and serves as an executive producer on the film as well.
Feast your eyes on Spielberg’s saturated retelling of the classic American love story in the trailer above, and enjoy the lushness of Bernstein’s music coupled with living legend Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics—though few of them made it into this preview. West Side Story will open in U.S. theaters on December 10, 2021.
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