In the wake of garnering a slew of Oscar nominations this week, it was announced that Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” will be coming to Disney+ in March.
The acclaimed musical is set to debut on the streamer on Wednesday, March 2 in the U.S. and most international countries. It will be released on Disney+ March 9 in Taiwan and March 30 in Japan.
Directed by Spielberg from a screenplay by Tony Award winner Tony Kushner, the film is an update on the classic 1961 movie of the same name.
Love at first sight strikes when young Tony spots Maria at a high school dance in 1957 New York City. Their burgeoning romance helps to fuel the fire between the warring Jets and Sharks — two rival gangs vying for control of the streets.
Spielberg’s film stars Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler as Tony and Maria, Ariana DeBose as Anita, David Alvarez as Bernardo, Mike Faist as Riff, Brian d’Arcy James as Officer Krupke, Corey Stoll as Lieutenant Schrank, and Josh Andrés Rivera as Chino.
Rita Moreno, who won the Oscar for playing Anita in the 1961 film, now plays Valentina, the owner of corner store in which Tony works. She also served as an executive producer of the 2021 film.
It is nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress (DeBose) Oscars, among its 7 nods.
In addition to its Academy Award nominations, “West Side Story” has also won 11 Critics’ Choice Awards, three Golden Globe awards, and it has been named one of the year’s Top 10 films for 2021 by the American Film Institute.
20th Century Studios, which released the film, was acquired by Disney when it purchased Fox and its assets. As such, in addition to streaming on Disney+, “West Side Story” will also be available on the same day on HBOMax, due to licensing agreements.
If you want to prep yourself to watch the film, Disney+ currently has the ABC “20/20” special “Something’s Coming: West Side Story” to stream. It originally aired in December 2021, prior to the movie’s release in theaters.