January 15, 2019

"High school student Rachel Zegler has been cast in the starring role of Maria in Steven Spielberg's planned 'West Side Story' remake."

"If Zegler, 17, looks familiar, it's because she's already been a bit of a viral sensation for video of her singing the Lady Gaga hit 'Shallow' from 'A Star Is Born' in an empty auditorium," CNN reports. Here's the viral tweet:

20 comments:

rhhardin said...

Autotune is bad news.

Bob Boyd said...

I saw West Side Story, the Opera in Ho Chi Minh City in 2008.
They have an extraordinary French Colonial opera house there, built in 1898. I wanted to see the inside and the only way they'd let me in was if I bought a ticket to the show. I don't remember what it cost, but it wasn't expensive. The show was performed by a Vietnamese cast. It's the only opera I've ever seen.

Some pictures of the building here:
https://www.luneproduction.com/saigon-opera-house

buwaya said...

Thanks for the link - its quite a small opera house as these things go.
Most of these colonial towns were small places in those days.

Only a very few were major cities at the time their classic colonial Euro-inspired architecture was being built.

CJinPA said...

A West Side Story remake? In Current Year America?

fraught
/frôt/
adjective
1. of a situation or course of action filled with or likely to result in something undesirable

Bob Boyd said...

@ Buwaya

They have a Notre Dame Cathedral there as well. The old French Colonial Post Office in Saigon is worth seeing. It's still in use.
Pics of both are easy to find online.

Known Unknown said...

Enough with the remakes.

Hollywood has become spineless and boring.

gahrie said...

The original Westside Story had one of the most unrealistic scenes in the history of movies.

At one point Tony, standing in the middle of the street in a Puerto Rican neighborhood, yells the name Maria at the top of his lungs....and only one girl comes to the window.

Andrew said...

I love the music to West Side Story, and there are certain dance sequences that never grow old ("America" for example).

But so much of the movie is unwatchable. Seeing gang members dance in the air just looks ridiculous. And the dialogue... See if you can watch the "Cool" sequence without laughing.

rehajm said...

Rachel, if you get on the boat with Robert and Walken, wear a life jacket...

stevew said...

A remake of a poor or badly received interpretation of a story has the potential for good. The remake of a well liked or loved original is crass commercialism and will not be supported by my entertainment dollars and time.

Other than that, is there something about the choice of this woman, and her singing, that I am supposed to be outraged by?

Andrew said...

@rehajm,
Maybe Natalie made a joke about black Sicilian dentists.

William said...

Is she Hispanic? That guy in Crazy Rich Asians caught flak because he was half white.......Maybe they could move the plot back a hundred years and make the protagonists Italian and Irish. A hundred years ago, they were fighting each other like crazy and now they're interconnected in deplorable marriages......I don't see how you can dramatize the plight of illegal immigrants with Puerto Ricans. Make her Guatemalan and cast someone who looks like Trump as Officer Krupke.

Robert Cook said...

What a powerhouse of a voice. No auto tune there.

Freeman Hunt said...

Great voice. I can't make it through the original movie.

eddie willers said...

Ouch!

Awful song.

Joan said...

She has a great voice.

I love the original movie (I'm a lot older than Freeman Hunt!) so hearing this young woman belt out this pop tune made me wince a little. Maria as originally written was emphatically not loud, not self-aggrandizing -- that's what made "I Feel Pretty" so funny and successful, here was this shy, modest girl suddenly coming alive in a way no one had seen before.

I have some trepidations that Maria's character will be "updated" and the entire production will collapse in a shambles as a result. Maria's innocence and faith are integral to the story. If Maria is "woke," none of it will make a lick of sense. We'll see.

On the larger point: Isn't the whole point of acting that you don't have to actually be X to portray X? You don't have to be anorexic to portray someone with an eating disorder. You don't have to be a serial killer (for example) to portray Hannibal Lecter. Doesn't anyone realize how condescending the attitude that says "only Hispanics should be cast as the Jets" is?

alanc709 said...

I didn't think much of her voice, myself. Decent tone but too much show without substance.

Henry said...

Really Glee vibe.

Bryan Townsend said...

Agh! Nope, this is not what I would call good singing or a good voice.

lge said...

I agree with Andrew. That movie has aged badly. Juvenile-delinquent gang members prancing around and spouting pseudo-hip tough talk just look camp and ridiculous.