In his first musical, Steven Spielberg chose to revive this 1957 classic, while bringing Tony Kushner along to re-work the script in some major ways: There’s more backstory for some of the characters and more attention has been paid to accurately depicting the Puerto Rican community (including some dialogue in Spanish with no translation). Most surprisingly, several of the songs have been reworked in the setting or the singer: Rita Moreno, who plays the owner of Doc’s Drugstore’s widow, sings “Somewhere” and it’s the most touching song in the film. The actors all excel in acting and singing and the dance numbers, while enthusiastic, don’t have the elegance or beauty of Jerome Robbins’ original. Fortunately, in one of Spielberg’s wisest choices, he shot most of the big dances in long wide shots, as opposed to lots of bothersome quick cuts, so you can appreciate the ensemble. The first few scenes get things off to a slow start with too much political positioning, but soon the drama ramps up and climaxes in a truly moving finale.

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