Tony and María’s love story is headed back to the big screen 60 years after “West Side Story” first hit theaters, and now fans of the romantic and tragic musical drama are finally getting a glimpse of the new production.
The first teaser trailer for Steven Spielberg’s take on the tale aired during Sunday night’s Academy Awards telecast, revealing a fresh cast and one enduring classic.
The minute-and-a-half clip opens as a new day dawns on mid-1950s New York City, a town both created and divided by its cultural diversity, with growing pains that play out between rival street gangs.
It’s amid that backdrop that two star-crossed lovers find each other, bringing their hearts together while their respective gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, prepare to rip each other apart.
Ansel Elgort (Tony) and Rachel Zegler (María) play the leads in Spielberg’s production, which also features Ariana DeBose (Anita), David Alvarez (Bernardo), Mike Faist (Riff), Josh Andrés Rivera (Chino) and Ana Isabelle (Rosalía).
The film also stars one familiar face any fan would know from the 1961 movie that came before it. Rita Moreno, who played young Anita in the original, returns at 89 years old to play a shop owner named Valentina, who employs Tony.
But that’s not all Moreno adds to the new film.
As the trailer plays, she can be heard singing Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s “Somewhere (There’s a Place for Us)".
Both films are based on the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name by Arthur Laurents, whose story was heavily inspired by William Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet.”
But that wasn't all that inspired Spielberg.
After shooting wrapped on the film, the 74-year-old famed director credited the city itself with playing an important part in the production.
“We filmed ‘West Side Story’ all over New York, from Flatbush to Fort Tryon Park," he wrote in an open letter at the time. "The city lent us its beauty and its energy, and we drew deeply upon its grand, multicultural, multifaceted spirit."
This story was originally published on TODAY.com.
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