48 | DECEMBER 9 • 2021 

MOSTLY WEST SIDE 
STORY, SOME SEX AND 
THE CITY
A film re-make of West Side 
Story opens on Dec. 10. It 
was directed by Steven 
Spielberg, 74, and the 
screenplay was written by 
Tony Kushner, 65. They 
first worked together on 
Spielberg’s acclaimed film 
Lincoln (2012). Kushner 
was Oscar-nominated for 
his Lincoln screenplay, 
and Spielberg earned a 
best director nomination. 
They also teamed-up for 
The Fabelmans, a semi-
autobiographical film about 
Spielberg’s “coming-of-
age” years that will open in 
2022. Spielberg directed 
and he co-wrote the 
original screenplay with 
Kushner.
Here’s West Side 
Story’s “very Jewish” 
origin story. Around 1955, 
choreographer Jerome
Robbins “pitched” the 
idea of a modernized 
musical version of Romeo 
and Juliet. Romeo would 
be a young Irish Catholic 
guy, and Juliet would be a 
Jewish teenage Holocaust 
survivor. “Everybody” 
eventually agreed that 
this update didn’t work. It 
was too much like Abie’s 
Irish Rose, a schmaltzy 
hit play about a Catholic/
Jewish couple. Not 
long after, news stories 
appeared about gang 
fights between “white kids” 
and recent Puerto Rican 
immigrants. They decided 
to make Juliet (Maria) 
Puerto Rican and Romeo 
(Tony) a native-born white 
guy.
The Broadway creative 

team was “all Jewish”: 
Robbins directed and 
choreographed; Arthur
Laurents penned the 
“book” (story, dialogue); 
Leonard Bernstein wrote 
the music; and Stephen 
Sondheim, who died on 
Nov. 26, age 91, penned 
the lyrics. The Broadway 
musical (1957) was a hit, as 
was the 1961 film. The new 
film is “still” set in the ’50s 
and it retains the original 
score.
Corey Stoll, 45, has a 
supporting role as police 
lieutenant Schrank and 
Ansel Elgort, 27, co-stars 
as Tony. Elgort has an 
“interesting” Jewish 
background. My sense is 
that he’s secular. Ansel’s 
mother is of non-Jewish 
background. His mother’s 
mother was sent to a Nazi 
concentration camp for 
saving Jewish children. 
Ansel’s father, Arthur 
Elgort, 81, is a well-known 
fashion photographer. 
Arthur’s father was Jewish, 
and his mother wasn’t 
born Jewish. Arthur made 
comments in an interview 
that make me believe he 
was raised Jewish and that 
it’s possible his mother 

converted to Judaism.
Sam Mendes, 56, an 
Oscar and Tony-winning 
director, spoke to the 
British newspaper the
Guardian about Sondheim 
right after his death. 
Mendes directed revivals 
of several Sondheim 
musicals, and he eloquently 
described the things which 
made Sondheim so great. 
He dropped one nugget 
that makes me think that 
the script of the new 
West Side Story film may 
have many changes from 
the original Laurents’ 
“book.” Mendes said that 
Arthur Laurents had legal 
veto power over script 
changes in West Side 
Story until his death in 
2011. He didn’t allow any 
changes and, in Mendes’ 
opinion, stage revivals 
became very stale. Last 
year, Mendes said, there 
was an innovative stage 
revival and, he implied, 
the new film will also have 
interesting changes. By the 
way, Mendes, a Brit, was 
knighted on Nov. 30, and 
he’s now “Sir Sam.”
Right after Sondheim 
died, I looked up how 
many Tonys he won (seven) 

and how many he was 
nominated for (11). While 
doing so, I came across 
a list of all the winners of 
the Tony for best musical 
and I did a quick check: 
70 musicals have won the 
“best” Tony since 1949. 
Fifty of these winners had 
their score (music) and/
or their lyrics written by 
someone Jewish (including 
two Jewish women). 
Clearly, Broadway musical 
theater is a crown jewel in 
the history of Jews in the 
diaspora and more people 
should know this. 
This “gentle dominance” 
explains Stephen 
Sondheim’s reaction when 
asked in a documentary 
(many years ago) if he 
ever faced antisemitism 
in his work. He was taken 
aback, and he asked, “You 
mean in the theater?” The 
questioner said, “Yes.” He 
replied, “No.” 
You could tell that 
Sondheim found the 
question absurd. It was like 
asking a guy who works at 
a famous Jewish deli if he 
faced antisemitism at work. 
The HBO Max series, And 
Just Like That (a “reboot” 
of Sex and the City), begins 
streaming on Dec. 9. Sarah 
Jessica Parker, 55, who 
plays star character Carrie, 
is in the reboot, as is Evan 
Handler, 60, who plays 
Harry, the Jewish husband 
of star character Charlotte 
(who converted to Judaism 
before marrying Harry). Sad 
to note: Willie Garson, who 
played Stanford, Carrie’s 
gay friend, was reported 
to be in the reboot earlier 
this year. But it’s unclear if 
Garson filmed any episodes 
before he died (Sept. 17) of 
pancreatic cancer. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

BY GAGE SKIDMORE VIA WIKIPEDIA

Corey Stoll

BY EVA RINALDI FROM SYDNEY AUSTRALIA 

Ansel Elgort