With Natalie Wood’s tragic death by drowning 30 years ago currently in the news, the Blu-ray release of West Side Story gives us an opportunity to celebrate the actress in her radiant prime.
Directors Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’s lavish big-screen version of Leonard Bernstein’s Broadway blockbuster, West Side Story, is fifty years old this year and to celebrate 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment have released a brand, spanking new version of the film on Blu-ray.
Watch a pair of clips from the new Blue-ray version of the film. Here the cast sing ‘America’. And Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer sing ‘Somewhere’ here.
Winner of a staggering 10 Oscars including one for Best Picture in 1961, this classic tale of star-crossed lovers on the mean streets of New York – think Romeo and Juliet in the fifties hood! – boasts a playbill of sing-along songs such as Tonight, Maria, Somewhere, I Feel Pretty and America and some toe-tapping, finger-snapping dance numbers. To add to the flash and colour of the original film, bonus features include a featurette on the dances of West Side Story, song specific commentary by lyricist Stephen Sondheim and a one-hour retrospective documentary entitled West Side Memories.
Happy birthday, West Side Story!
Available now on Blu-ray from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
To activate the sound in the trailer: hold your cursor over the screen to reveal the control panel and click on the volume control in the bottom right-hand corner.
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