West Side Story: stage vs screen

West Side Story opened on Broadway in 1957 and has been filmed twice: by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins in 1961, and by Steven Spielberg, from a screenplay by Tony Kushner, in 2021. Both films keep the Bernstein and Sondheim score and the tragic ending, but each one reshuffles songs and reshapes characters. Here is how they compare with the original stage show.

Stage

Broadway musical (1957)

Screen

West Side Story (1961) and West Side Story (2021)

1. Cool and Gee, Officer Krupke trade places

On stage, Riff leads the Jets in Cool before the rumble, and Gee, Officer Krupke is a comic number in Act Two, after the killings. The 1961 film reverses them: Riff and the Jets sing Krupke before the rumble, and Cool comes afterward, led by Ice, as the leaderless gang tries to keep its head. Stephen Sondheim, who disliked the stage order, backed the change. The 2021 film puts both songs in the first half, turning Cool into a struggle between Tony and Riff over a gun.

2. I Feel Pretty moves, then moves back

The stage show opens Act Two with I Feel Pretty, sung by a giddy Maria who does not yet know the rumble has left her brother dead. The 1961 film moves it before the rumble, which removes that irony. The 2021 film returns it to after the rumble and stages it in Gimbels department store, where Maria works on the night cleaning crew.

3. Who sings Somewhere

On stage, Somewhere is part of a dream ballet in which Tony and Maria imagine a world without hate, with the song first sung by another voice (Consuelo in the original production). The 1961 film dropped the ballet and has Tony and Maria sing it in her bedroom. The 2021 film gives it to Valentina, played by Rita Moreno, as a lament after the deaths.

4. Doc becomes Valentina

In the stage show and the 1961 film, Doc is the elderly drugstore owner who tries in vain to steer the Jets away from violence. The 2021 film replaces him with Valentina, his Puerto Rican widow, who runs the store and mentors Tony. Moreno, who won an Oscar as Anita in 1961, played her and also served as an executive producer.

5. Tony gets a criminal past

In the stage show and the 1961 film, Tony is simply a former Jet who has outgrown the gang. Kushner's script gives him a year in prison for nearly beating a rival gang member to death, an experience that scared him straight. He is on parole when the 2021 story begins.

6. Spanish without subtitles

The 2021 film cast Latino actors as the Sharks and lets them speak Spanish, often with no subtitles, a choice Spielberg described as a matter of respect. It also sets the story against the demolition of the San Juan Hill neighborhood to make way for Lincoln Center. Both are departures from the 1961 film, in which Natalie Wood played Maria.

7. Dubbed voices in 1961

Several 1961 stars did not do all their own singing. Marni Nixon sang for Natalie Wood's Maria, Jimmy Bryant for Richard Beymer's Tony, and Betty Wand for Rita Moreno in A Boy Like That, though Moreno sang America herself. The 2021 film did away with that practice, and its leads sang their own roles.

8. America gets the Shark men

On stage, America is a number for Anita and the Shark girls. Both films bring in the Shark men too, turning it into an argument about life in the United States between the women and the men. The 1961 film sets it on a rooftop at night, while the 2021 film moves it into the streets in daylight.

West Side Story movie vs musical: FAQs