Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story Cast Revealed in First Look

Something’s coming … to the big screen. The Jets and the Sharks of Steven Spielberg’s forthcoming version of West Side Story look ready to rumble in a first look unveiled by 20th Century Fox Monday.

Pictured in the image is most of the sprawling main cast. From left to right are: Jets members Anybodys (Ezra Menas), Mouthpiece (Ben Cook), Action (Sean Harrison Jones); Jets leader Riff (Mike Faist); Baby John (Patrick Higgins); Tony (Ansel Elgort) and Maria (Rachel Zegler); Maria’s brother and Sharks leader Bernardo (David Alvarez); and Sharks members Quique (Julius Anthony Rubio), Chago (Ricardo Zayas), Chino (Josh Andrés Rivera), Braulio (Sebastian Serra) and Pipo (Carlos Sánchez Falú).

Cameras have already started rolling in Harlem, and the film is set to hit theaters on Dec. 18, 2020.

Inspired by the classic Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story plops us in the Upper West Side neighborhood of New York City in the mid-1950s. We watch the rivalry between two teenage street gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, reach a fever pitch as one gang member falls in love with a rival’s sister.

Elgort stars as Tony and Zegler as Maria, the star-crossed lovers who take centerstage in the classic tale of young love and racial tension.

Elgort, known for his work in The Fault in Our Stars, Divergent, Baby Driver and, more recently, The Goldfinch, is no stranger to the big screen. But newcomer Zegler is set to star in her very first venture into film. Plucked out of high school theater productions and with a sizable YouTube presence, Zegler is only 17 years old and already starring in a major film adaptation of a musical.

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EGOT winner Rita Moreno, who copped an Oscar for her performance as Anita in the 1961 film adaptation of West Side Story, is set to play an entirely new character, the corner store owner Valentina, in a role that has been created just for her.

The “King of the Hill” himself and leader of the Jets, Riff, will be played by the Tony-nominated Faist. Alvarez, most recognized for his role in Billy Elliot the Musical, will play Maria’s brother Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks.

While it won’t be an exact retelling, Spielberg is adapting the original 1957 musical, a Broadway mainstay since it was first written by the legendary Arthur Laurents with music by the one and only Leonard Bernstein.

West Side Story marks both Spielberg and Elgort’s first forays into movie musicals.

Tony Kushner, an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, has penned the script. Tony Award-winning choreographer Justin Peck is set to helm the musical’s booming, iconic musical numbers, while Gustavo Dudamel of the highly acclaimed LA Philharmonic Orchestra will conduct Bernstein’s classic score. David Newman of Anastasia will arrange the score, and Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesoro, known for Fun Home and Thoroughly Modern Millie, will work with the cast on vocals.

Check out the full first-look photo and star-studded cast below.

SHARKS
– David Aviles Morales
– Yesenia Ayala
– María Alejandra Castillo
– Annelise Cepero
– Andrei Chagas
– Jeanette Delgado
– Kelvin Delgado
– Gaby Diaz
– Yurel Echezarreta
– Adriel Flete
– Carlos E. Gonzalez
– David Guzman
– Jacob Guzman
– Melody Martí
– Ilda Mason
– Juliette Feliciano Ortiz
– Edriz E. Rosa Pérez
– Maria Alexis Rodriguez
– Gabriela Soto
– Ricky Ubeda
– Tanairi Vazquez
– Jamila Velazquez
– Isabella Ward

JETS
– Brianna Abruzzo
– Kyle Allen
– Kyle Coffman
– Harrison Coll
– Kevin Csolak
– Kellie Drobnick
– Julian Elia
– Myles Erlick
– Leigh-Ann Esty
– Sara Esty
– John Michael Fiumara
– Paloma Garcia-Lee
– Garett Hawe
– Eloise Kropp
– Lauren Leach
– Jess LeProtto
– Skye Mattox
– Adriana Pierce
– Brittany Pollack
– Daniel Patrick Russell
– Talia Ryder
– Jonalyn Saxer
– Halli Toland
– Maddie Ziegler